Abstract
This study was designed to investigate the way how the elderly at institutions recognize their living environments and to elucidate the way how the cognition influences the subjective quality of life (QOL). The relationship was investigated in 26 institutions, by which cooperation was obtained for the research, among special protective care homes for the aged and health institutions for the aged in 3 prefectures of the Kanto district. The research included 121 subjects, who were evaluated not to be demented by the staff of the institutions, among the elderly at these institutions. This research included a total of 37 items from the following 3 aspects as living environments, in addition to fundamental attributes (sex, age, and extended activities of daily living) : "freedom of choice" (9 items) ; "facility of equipment" (19 items) ; and "consideration given to the aged on living their lives" (9 items). The subjective QOL was evaluated on the basis of the degree of satisfaction with life and the comfortableness of institution environment. These contents were investigated by regression analysis using the subjective QOL as object variable and other items as independent variable. The results showed that "freedom of choice" and "facility of equipment" were related to the degree of satisfaction with the current life and the comfortableness of institution environment, respectively, at the statistically significant levels. All of the abovedescribed research observations indicate that the big task confronting in the future is to adjust institution environments which will meet the subjective QOL.
