A Study on Gender Difference in Assessing Emotional Design Characteristics of General Hospital's Wards

Purpose: This research was for understanding the attitudinal difference by gender towards emotional design through questionnaire survey with female and male inpatients on environmental characteristics of wards in general hospitals. Methods: The survey was conducted by questioning inpatients at two general hospitals on the importance rating on emotional design elements of patient rooms, lounges, and hallways. Eighty questionnaires were returned and used for data analyses through SPSS windows version 15.0 statistic package program. Results: 1) In general, female patients considered emotional design of wards as more important than male patients and the most outstanding difference was indicated for patient rooms among patient rooms, lounges, and hallways. For patient rooms the comfortability index was rated as the most important to both female and male inpatient groups, and for lounges and hallways the safety index was evaluated as the most important to both gender groups. 2)For lounges, while male patients rated 'prevention of infection' important among safety relating items, women considered 'accident prevention' more important. It is inferred that female patients have more safety needs and anxiety about physical injury or accidents than male ones do. Implications: It is considered that there need to be further succeeding in-depth studies, e.g. research interviews with inpatient;s family members or other caregivers as well as patients themselves.

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