Understanding How Older Adults Negotiate Environmental Hazards in Their Home

Abstract The purpose of this research was to examine environmental hazards related to falling risk by using two different approaches and to discuss older adults’ adaptive coping strategies. Environmental hazards were identified by a researcher and residents in 88 older adults’ independent living units at a senior retirement community. This research employed two statistical analyses including a dependent sample t-test and pair-wise Kappa statistics in order to identify a significant difference in environmental hazards from two assessment tools as well as examine the inter-rater reliability on each item. Research findings show that older adults could hardly identify as many environmental hazards as the objective measurement did because of their different coping strategies, knowledge, experience, and health status. The residents' perception is a necessary component in that it could provide new insights about hazards. This research provides empirical evidence of how older adults negotiate their environmental hazards.