Developing a Typology of Nursing Home Environments

Nursing homes are complex environments with large numbers of features that may impact resident quality of life. Multivariate analysis of the effects of individual features is difficult because many features are potentially confounded with one another. We used cluster analysis to identify four types of resident room environments and four types of unit/facility environments. The data were collected using a new environmental assessment instrument in 1,988 resident rooms in 131 units in 40 nursing homes in 5 states. We lay out a series of testable hypotheses about the impact of specific environmental features on resident quality of life as an agenda for future research.