Cultural sensitivity is an important issue in design and not only about dealing with cultural diversity, but also about designing for cultural dilemmas that are related to multi-cultural contexts. This paper is concerned with cultural sensitivity and presents students’ perspectives, which were obtained through workshops. For this aim at first workshops on cultural sensitivity in design were briefly introduced. Then the last workshop, which was performed in Kish Island (Iran) at University of Tehran, was explained and some design results were presented through illustration. 70 design students with different backgrounds and nationalities participated. In order to obtain the students’ perspectives, an online questionnaire was sent to them. The mix of open and closed questions was related to students’ learning experiences. The results were categorised into five themes that arose from the open questions. The findings indicate that students had a fruitful experience in the workshop and obtained a large amount of knowledge and experience regarding cultural sensitivity, not only through the workshop approach and teaching style, but also through the international character and its socials aspects.

In the future, medical technology will prolong our lives significantly, thereby changing our perspectives on death and dying, and will question the quality of life in its final stage. It might well be that we not only prolong life, but the dying process as well. More and more, people will need to make decisions about how they envision their end of life. The Delft Design for End-of-Life lab addresses these questions from a design perspective: how could design support the quality of life in its final stage, and how could design support people in preparing for that final stage and communicating about it? And more in general: how could design contribute to death awareness and literacy in our societies? This paper introduces the different aspects of End-of-Life care as a foundation for the Delft Design for End-of-Life Lab, describes the lab illustrated with several design examples, and concludes with the lessons learned from Design for End-of-Life that may be relevant for other domains of design.

Background: Despite the detrimental effects of physical inactivity for older adults, especially aged residents of residential care settings may spend much time in inactive behavior. This may be partly due to their poorer physical condition; however, there may also be other, setting-related factors that influence the amount of inactivity. The aim of this review was to review setting-related factors (including the social and physical environment) that may contribute to the amount of older adults’ physical inactivity in a wide range of residential care settings (e.g., nursing homes, assisted care facilities). Methods: Five databases were systematically searched for eligible studies, using the key words ‘inactivity’, ‘care facilities’, and ‘older adults’, including their synonyms and MeSH terms. Additional studies were selected from references used in articles included from the search. Based on specific eligibility criteria, a total of 12 studies were included. Quality of the included studies was assessed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT). Results: Based on studies using different methodologies (e.g., interviews and observations), and of different quality (assessed quality range: 25-100%), we report several aspects related to the physical environment and caregivers. Factors of the physical environment that may be related to physical inactivity included, among others, the environment’s compatibility with the abilities of a resident, the presence of equipment, the accessibility, security, comfort, and aesthetics of the environment/corridors, and possibly the presence of some specific areas. Caregiver-related factors included staffing levels, the available time, and the amount and type of care being provided. Conclusions: Inactivity levels in residential care settings may be reduced by improving several features of the physical environment and with the help of caregivers. Intervention studies could be performed in order to gain more insight into causal effects of improving setting-related factors on physical inactivity of aged residents.

Background: The number of older adults with dementia is expected to increase. Dementia is not only characterized by a decline in cognition, also other functions, for example, physical functioning change. A possible means to decrease the decline in these functions, or even improve them, could be increasing the amount of physical activity. A feasible way hereto may be activation of the mirror neuron system through action observation. This method has already been shown beneficial for the performance of actions in, for example, stroke patients. The primary aim of this study is to examine the effect of observing videos of walking people on physical activity and physical performance, in older adults with dementia. Secondary, effects on cognition and quality of life related factors will be examined. Methods/Design: A cluster randomized controlled trial is being performed, in which videos are shown to older adults with dementia (also additional eligibility criteria apply) in shared living rooms of residential care facilities. Due to the study design, living rooms instead of individual participants are randomly assigned to the experimental (videos of walking people) or control (videos of nature) condition, by means of drawing pieces of paper. The intervention has a duration of three months, and takes place on weekdays, during the day. There are four measurement occasions, in which physical activity, physical functioning, activities of daily living, cognition, the rest-activity rhythm, quality of life, and depression are assessed. Tests for participants are administered by a test administrator who is blind to the group the participant is in. Discussion: This study examines the effect of the observation of walking people on multiple daily life functions and quality of life related factors in older adults with dementia. A strength of this study is that the intervention does not require much time and attention from caregivers or researchers. A challenge of the study is therefore to get to know for how long residents watch the videos. However, the design implies a high feasibility of the study, as well as a high applicability of the intervention into daily care. Trial registration: NTR4708. Date of registration: 31 July 2014.

Most older persons with dementia living in nursing homes spend their days without engaging in much physical activity. This study therefore looked at the influence that the environment has on their level of physical activity, by reviewing empirical studies that measured the effects of environmental stimuli on the physical activity of nursing home residents suffering from dementia. The electronic databases PubMed, PsycINFO, EMBASE, CINAHL and the Cochrane Library were used for the search. The search covered studies published between January 1993 and December 2012, and revealed 3187 abstracts. 326 studies were selected as potentially relevant; of these, 24 met all the inclusion criteria. Positive results on the residents' levels of physical activity were found for music, a homelike environment and functional modifications. Predominantly positive results were also found for the small-scale group living concepts. Mixed results were found for bright or timed light, the multisensory environment and differences in the building footprint.