廚房配置於高齡使用行為之研究

The Study on Kitchen Arrangement and Using Behavior of the Elders

高齡者在退休後，住宅逐漸成為生活中主要活動範圍，而廚房是住宅中使用水、火、電複合式的場域，同時也是高齡者較容易發生意外的場所之一。高齡者由於老化，在身體特徵上是屬於適應力差且屈從環境的族群，必須藉由環境的改善來適應個體的能力。本研究主以健康自立期以及短暫障礙期之在宅安養高齡者為主，透過文獻探討、深度訪談以及廚房實地測量與繪製與紀錄，檢視不同住宅類型廚房衍生的問題點。
硏究發現主要可分為三大面向：1)個體因素結果：由於受到「年齡」因素的影響，年齡越高，每日烹調次數遞減，且「身體狀況不佳」者，較容易發生廚房意外；2)居住型態差異結果：高齡者慣性使用的烹調設備，仍然以瓦斯爐、抽油煙機以及電鍋佔多數。「炒」的烹調方式仍然是多數高齡者慣用的。而高齡者期望廚房能夠擁有情戚交流的功能，藉由廚房來增加與家人的互動，進而達成情啟交流；3)實地檢視住宅廚房結果：受測者會將不常使用的鍋具堆放，同時空間中有段差、電器設備配置不佳、廚房不易清理等問題，容易產生安全上的顧慮。然而即使在面對不適用的廚房空間，高齡者多會以調整自身的習慣來順應環境，現況多未針對高齡者的使用考量進行廚房改建。
總結而言，廚房應該具備「安全性」、「便利性」與「舒適性」特點，而「安全性」的可由「硬體環境的改善」與「安全設備」交織構成。研究中最後以「安全性」、「便利性」與「舒適性」為廚房改建原則，期望未來有關高齡者使用之廚房之整建規畫能有適當的參考依據。

After the elderly retire, the resident becomes the main area of the activities in their daily life. The kitchen is a place that is equipped with water, fire and electricity and a place that has higher accident rate. Because of degeneration, the elderly was a population with lower ability to submit to environment. The subject of this research is mainly the elderly in self-sustaining period and provisional barrier who live at home. Through literature review, deep interview and measure and record form real kitchen of subjects and then found out the problems that derive from different types kitchens.
The results included three parts: 1) Individual differences: individual is affected by ''age,'' the higher the age is, the less times of cooking per day. And the ones with ''bad health condition'' are more likely to have accidents. 2) Differences in living style: the cooking appliances which they are used to are still the gas oven, kitchen ventilator and electric pot. The elderly expected the kitchen to have the function of emotional communication, and use the kitchen to increase interaction with family members. 3) inspection of residential kitchens: The elderly used to stack the pots and utensils that are not often used. At the same time, there are problems in the space, the configuration of electrical equipment is not good, and the kitchen is not easy to clean, which is easy to cause safety concerns. However, even in the unsuitable kitchen space, the elderly adjusted their habits to adapt to the environment, and do not remodel the kitchen for the use of the elderly.
In conclusion, the elderly think that the kitchen should be provided with ''safety,'' ''convenience,'' and ''comfort.'' And the ''safety'' should be considered with ''hardware improvement'' and ''safe appliances'' . This study uses ''safety,'' ''convenience,'' and ''comfort'' as the principle guidelines of kitchen modifying.