Designing Staircase for Age-Friendly Housing

Aim: The study aimed to design a staircase for age-friendly housing by discovering the gap between existing staircase design and requirements of the elderly people.

Sample: Sixty elderly women in the age of sixty and above who were living independently in a separate house was the criteria for the selection of sample. Purposive sampling technique was adopted to draw the sample.

Study Design: Ex post facto research design was adopted for the study.

Place and Duration of Study: The area selected to conduct the study were the Kurnool and Nandyal towns of Kurnool District of Andhra Pradesh. The study was conducted in the year 2019-2020.

Methodology: The design recommendations for staircase in elderly housing proposed by various researchers served as yardstick to identify the existing staircase features in the elderly houses. An interview cum observation schedule was developed for gathering information about the existing staircase features in elderly houses. The elderly houses were physically observed by the investigator. The existing staircase features were measured in terms of above the recommendations, exactly as per the recommendations and below the recommendations with scores of 3,2 and 1 respectively. The elderly people were asked to express their requirements for staircase design in terms of essential, preferred and neutral with scores of 3,2,1 respectively. Frequencies and percentages were calculated for the existing staircase and requirements of elderly houses. Chi square analysis was performed to find out the relationship between existing staircase features and requirements of the elderly people. Taking into consideration of the elderly people requirements, staircase design was developed.

Results and Conclusion: The design of handrails, risers and treads of staircase was not found as per the recommendations in most of the houses. Staircase with wider treads and lower risers were the features felt essential in designing a staircase by most of the elderly people. Staircase that facilitates safety and easy use was designed for the elderly housing as per the recommendations.