Perceived Kitchen Environment among Malaysian Elderly

Problem statement: Kitchen is the most important room in a house. Its environment should be highly conducive especially for the elderly when performing daily kitchen activities. There has been little research focused on the environment quality of the elderly kitchen in Malaysia. Only a few researches have been done on general home environment although our preliminary findings shown that the elderly spend 60% of their daily time in the kitchen. Due to this concern, a study was conducted to investigate the quality of Malaysian elderly kitchen environment and how they perceive different thermal levels. Approach: The kitchen temperature, humidity and light level were measured as these three variables are important factors in the environmental quality determination. Thirty houses were visited and a set of questionnaire was used to measure elderly task performance. The measured values were then compared to previous recommended findings and comfort level of working environment. Results: The results show that 80% of the kitchen temperature is higher than 28.43°C. In terms of brightness level, 56.67% of the kitchens had lower than 323 lux. But the humidity was found remains within the range. Conclusion: The temperature of Malaysian kitchen is higher than moderate level which contributed to discomfort. The kitchen brightness level is lower than required by the elderly. Both variables could affect to the elderly task performance.