Standards and the demand for adapting apartments for better accessibility for older adults in Poland

Abstract

The process of Polish population aging is gaining momentum. In Poland there is a large number of people aging in place, and their physical environment and how well it is adapted to their physical needs, is linked to their health and satisfaction with their home. The purpose of the study is to identify the current state of adapting apartments to the needs of people with mobility limitations in Poland, and also to present their current standard of residence. The following aspects were analysed: access to cold water, hot water, access to sewage, toilet in the apartment or on the staircase. The study aims at providing answers regarding the degree of readiness to change the resided apartments into the ones adapted to the needs of people with mobility impairments among people over 50 (a total of 208 respondents). The authors’ aim was to find out the public mood among people aged 50 and over and their propensity to change apartments in the future The work used a public opinion research based on the performed survey and the conducted statistical analyses. The research revealed, e.g., that the respondents most often indicated the need to adapt bathrooms or toilets in their apartments or houses to facilitate mobility (52%). The respondents residing in the buildings constructed in the period 1945–1975 were most willing to change their current apartment into the one adapted to limited mobility. This is usually due to the poor technical condition of the buildings constructed in this period as well as the structural limitations that do not allow for the modernization of a bathroom or the installation of an elevator in the building.