Are Private Bedrooms Necessary for Residential Facilities for the Elderly in China?

Implementation of a Sense of Home in High-Density Multicultural Singapore Nursing Homes: Challenges and Opportunities

“…Such studies were mostly founded on, and emphasized, the Western-inspired values of neo-liberalism and individualism. Conversely, a few studies in Asia (mostly with an ethnic Chinese profile) have reported an acceptance of multi-bedded rooms in the Asian context [ 6 , 7 ].…”

“…Only a few studies have reported different cultural interpretations of the care models in nursing homes outside Europe, North America and Australasia. Some studies discovered that Chinese elders in nursing homes in Hong Kong and Shanghai valued communal living more than privacy and autonomy [ 6 , 7 ]. A few other studies reported cultural discrepancies experienced by South Asian residents in UK nursing homes in terms of human relationships and spirituality [ 32 , 33 ].…”

“…A few recent non-Western studies provide differing views. Sima’s [ 6 ] work on residential facilities in Shanghai and the work by Low et al [ 7 ] in Hong Kong both reported the Chinese residents’ preference for a shared room over a private one, because of their values regarding collectivism and associations with their past lifestyles. One could surmise that these two studies relate specifically to a deep traditional Chinese culture and may not apply to a modern multicultural society such as Singapore, despite the fact that its population predominantly comprises citizens of Chinese ethnicity.…”

Analysis of Chinese Elders’ Attitude and Preference Regarding Air Conditioning Usage in Bedrooms of Care Facilities in Summer

“…In fact, in the facilities that bedrooms were connected by a corridor, many of the residents also opened the doors of the rooms and windows on the other side of the corridor during the day in order to increase the rate of ventilation. Past studies have suggested that environmental privacy in China's care facilities is far from satisfying 20)21) , but some studies also indicated that compared with the condition in western culture, Chinese elders were also less sensitive to spatial privacy issues 2) . In this study, it was also witnessed that opening the bedroom doors during daytime did not seem to cause any inconvenience to the residents.…”

“…As the past researches pointed out, the psychology characteristics and preference regarding air conditioning usage among many Chinese elders could be quite different from their foreign peers 1) . Moreover, as most of the bedrooms in China's care facilities are not single rooms, regarding the management of the facilities, the use of air conditioning could often be an important factor in triggering conflicts between roommates 2) . Meanwhile, air-conditioning usage also has a considerable impact on the power load and operating costs of the facilities in summer.…”