高齡者跌倒成因與友善生活環境：一個質性研究的發現

Causes of Accidental Fall and Elderly-friendly Living Environment: A Discovery of Qualitative Study

陳燕禎(Yen-Chen Chen) ； 林義學(Yi-Hsueh Lin)

《輔仁社會研究》 4期 (2014/01) Pp. 43-83

摘要

跌倒發生對高齡者而言是一項影響其生活、生理及心理的重要事件。高齡者由於生理機能退化，使得跌倒後傷口不易癒合，需要長時間的照顧與治療，造成生活巨大的改變，影響所及包括其家屬。因此研究高齡者跌倒成因與建構友善生活環境，有益增進高齡者與其家屬的生活品質。本研究旨在透過跌倒成因之探討，以建構高齡者友善生活環境。本研究採質化研究，並以深度訪談法蒐集資料。深度訪談對象一組為高齡組，另一組為照顧人員組；高齡組有6人接受訪談，照顧人員組有11人接受訪談。研究結果發現高齡者跌倒發生的成因受到生理與環境因素所致。生理層面包括慢性病等影響，環境層面則包括居家空間與公共環境的不友善，導致高齡者跌倒機率增加。跌倒造成高齡者的生理影響有骨折、長期治療、生理機能無法回復等；心理影響有害怕走路、無法獨自行走、獨立生活能力下降等，跌倒後的老人因此而改變其生活方式。基此建構高齡者友善環境以及跌倒預防工作，可從高齡者實際生活習慣與公共空間的場域著手，以建立生活場域為中心的友善環境體系。

關鍵字

友善環境 ； 跌倒 ； 高齡者 ； 支持系統

並列摘要

Accidental fall emerges as a critical incident to the elderly that physiologically and psychologically affects their lives. Marred by deteriorating physiological functionalities, the elderly tend to suffer prolonged healing of the wounds following an accidental fall to require long-time care and treatment, putting them to face drastic changes that affect even the family. With that said, researching the causes of accidental fall among the elderly and building a friendly living environment is deemed conducive in enhancing the quality of life among the elderly and their family. The study adopts a qualitative research, together with in-depth interviews, to gather the data. Subjects of the in-depth interviews entail one elderly group, and the other group being the caretakers; in the elderly group, six people receive the interview, and in the caretaker group, eleven people receive the interview. The study findings found that the causes of accidental fall among the elderly have been caused by physiological and environmental factors. The physiological aspect includes the impact of chronic diseases and the like, whereas the environmental aspect includes the unfriendly home space and public environment, resulting in an increase of the probability of accidental fall among the elderly. The physiological impact of an accidental fall consists of bone fracture, long-term treatment, unrecoverable physiological functions and so forth; the psychological impact ranges from fear of walking, unable to walk independently, deteriorating capability to independent living, prompting the elderly to alter their lifestyle after a fall. Instilling an elderly-friendly environment and stepping up accidental fall prevention work can be broached from the domain of improving the elder's actual living and public spaces in a bid to instill a friendly environment system catering to the elderly and their living domain.

並列關鍵字

Friendly Environment ； Accidental Fall ； the Elderly ； Support System