Is 'dementia-friendly design' cost effective? The results of a preliminary literature review

Citation

Koreki A, Sado M, Katayama N, Rutherford A & Bowes A (2021) Is 'dementia-friendly design' cost effective? The results of a preliminary literature review. Psychogeriatrics, 21 (4), pp. 691-692. https://doi.org/10.1111/psyg.12698

Abstract
First paragraph: Developing dementia‐friendly societies has become a critical issue in this rapidly ageing world. Recently, dementia‐friendly designs (DFD) have increasingly become a topic of interest; this is a concept that well‐designed environments are used to compensate and help people with dementia for mitigating the difficulties faced by them in their daily lives due to cognitive decline. A DFD can be of two kinds: physical and cognitive. In today's societies, physically friendly designs are widespread; they include step‐free access and availability of elevators. These designs help people with physical impairment but are not necessarily helpful for people with cognitive impairment. Therefore, the implementation of DFD is important for ageing societies. DFD have been proposed for various environments, and studies have revealed that DFD are effective for people with dementia. For example, one aspect of DFD toilets is good contrast between the toilet and the toilet seat to prevent confusion and falling due to poor visual processing. However, there is a gap in the research for understanding the cost‐effectiveness of implementing DFD.

People

Professor Alison Bowes

Professor, Faculty of Social Sciences

Professor Alasdair Rutherford

Professor, Sociology, Social Policy & Criminology