Safety practices of older adults in residential environments

The major objectives of this study were to identify critical safety hazards, safety precautions practiced by older adults, and the factors that would assist older adults in preventing accidents in their residential environment and to examine the relationship between these safety practices and selected demographic characteristics of older adults. A personal interview schedule was developed and administered to a random sample of 50 members of the Virginia Cooperative Extension Homemaker's Council, over age 70, in Giles, Montgomery, and Pulaski Counties and the city of Radford. Means, frequencies, and correlations were used to examine the data. The findings revealed that older adults evaluate their home as moderately or extremely safe and they perceive that it is not likely to somewhat likely that hazards exist in their home that could cause an accident. Older adults currently practice an average of 15 out of a possible 20 safety precautions in their home. They are most likely to seek assistance in preventing accidents in their home from family members in the form of routine cleaning. If given the money and assistance to make improvements in the safety of their home, older adults would be interested in installing a secure grab bar in the bathtub or shower, painting or taping the edge of steps in order to see them better, attaching handrails on the stairway, and installing a telephone close to the bed. No significant relationship was found between the older adult's safety hazard perception score, safety precaution score, or factors that would assist older adults in preventing accidents in their residential environment and their health status, accident history, income, or mastery level.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Housing, Interior Design, and Resource Management

Department dc:contributor.department

Housing, Interior Design, and Resource Management

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

1990

Author dc:creator

• Tomlinson, Karen A.

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

etd-04252009-040802

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/42230