F. Caffaro

Luminous environment in healthcare buildings for user satisfaction and comfort: an objective and subjective field study:

Lighting is a very important factor in healthcare, with positive effects both on patients mood and recovery time and on the nursing staffs job satisfaction and reduced stress. Nevertheless, few studies focused specifically on lighting in healthcare buildings. This study investigated the luminous environmental quality through an objective and a subjective approach, reporting results from field activities in four hospitals in Turin and Asti (region of Piedmont, Italy), aimed both at detecting critical conditions of non-compliance with reference to standards and at evaluating visual comfort of patients, visitors and of the nursing staff. From objective measurements, much non-compliance was found. In spite of this, subjective analyses showed that the group of patients and visitors was satisfied with the quality and quantity of lighting within their rooms, while the nursing staff were generally less satisfied. Based on these findings, first considerations for the design of user-centred healthcare buildings are discussed.

Development and validation of the Perception of Housing Quality Scale (PHQS)

In this study, we aimed to develop and validate the Perception of Housing Quality Scale (PHQS), a multi-item, multi-factorial measure of perceived housing quality focused on people’s homes as the unit of analysis and based on individuals’ perceptions of how much the physical aspects of their home environments fulfill their daily needs. The instrument was developed by a multidisciplinary team comprising psychologists and architects for the identification of the main factors describing the perceived quality of the physical features of home environments. Confirmatory factor analysis performed on the data, collected from a quota sample comprising 285 Italian adults aged between 25 and 65 (women = 52.3%, Mage = 42.81, SD = 12.73), confirmed the hypothesis that two correlated factors define perceived housing quality: “Indoor environment and architectural design” and “Outdoor stressors.” These factors revealed the expected correlations with home ownership and the discrepancy between the actual and the ideal home. The implications of this scale in housing research are discussed.