ORCID Profile
0000-0003-3224-8556
Current Organisation
University of Adelaide
Does something not look right? The information on this page has been harvested from data sources that may not be up to date. We continue to work with information providers to improve coverage and quality. To report an issue, use the Feedback Form.
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 13-11-2020
Abstract: An important consideration for future age-friendly cities is that older people are able to live in housing appropriate for their needs. While thermal comfort in the home is vital for the health and well-being of older people, there are currently few guidelines about how to achieve this. This study is part of a research project that aims to improve the thermal environment of housing for older Australians by investigating the thermal comfort of older people living independently in South Australia and developing thermal comfort guidelines for people ageing-in-place. This paper describes the approach fundamental for developing the guidelines, using data from the study participants’ and the concept of personas to develop a number of discrete “thermal personalities”. Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA) was implemented to analyse the features of research participants, resulting in six distinct clusters. Quantitative and qualitative data from earlier stages of the project were then used to develop the thermal personalities of each cluster. The thermal personalities represent different approaches to achieving thermal comfort, taking into account a wide range of factors including personal characteristics, ideas, beliefs and knowledge, house type, and location. Basing the guidelines on thermal personalities highlights the heterogeneity of older people and the context-dependent nature of thermal comfort in the home and will make the guidelines more user-friendly and useful.
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 26-05-2021
Abstract: The public areas of the hospital built environment have hardly been investigated for their age-friendliness. This exploratory, multidisciplinary pilot study investigates the relationship between the physical environment and design of hospital spaces and older people’s outpatient experience. Sixteen participants were recruited from a geriatric Outpatient Clinic at a metropolitan public hospital in Australia. Participants were engaged in a concurrent mixed-method approach, comprising a comprehensive geriatric survey, walking observation, semi-structured interview and an independent architectural audit. Several elements arising from the hospital environment were identified as facilitators and barriers for its utilization and intrinsically related to participants’ physical capacity. Age-friendly hospital design needs to consider strategies to remove barriers for older adults of different capacities, thus promoting healthy aging.
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 08-01-2022
Abstract: Older people are often over-represented in morbidity and mortality statistics associated with hot and cold weather, despite remaining mostly indoors. The study “Improving thermal environment of housing for older Australians” focused on assessing the relationships between the indoor environment, building characteristics, thermal comfort and perceived health/wellbeing of older South Australians over a study period that included the warmest summer on record. Our findings showed that indoor temperatures in some of the houses reached above 35 °C. With concerns about energy costs, occupants often use adaptive behaviours to achieve thermal comfort instead of using cooling (or heating), although feeling less satisfied with the thermal environment and perceiving health/wellbeing to worsen at above 28 °C (and below 15 °C). Symptoms experienced during hot weather included tiredness, shortness of breath, sleeplessness and dizziness, with coughs and colds, painful joints, shortness of breath and influenza experienced during cold weather. To express the influence of temperature and humidity on perceived health/wellbeing, a Temperature Humidity Health Index (THHI) was developed for this cohort. A health/wellbeing perception of “very good” is achieved between an 18.4 °C and 24.3 °C indoor operative temperature and a 55% relative humidity. The evidence from this research is used to inform guidelines about maintaining home environments to be conducive to the health/wellbeing of older people.
Publisher: IOP Publishing
Date: 09-2019
DOI: 10.1088/1757-899X/609/4/042096
Abstract: In Australia, the vast majority of older people, those aged 65 years and over, want to live at their own homes for as long as possible. Older people are, however, vulnerable to extreme conditions, hot or cold, and therefore it is crucial to ensure that the home’s indoor environmental conditions are conducive to their health and well-being. The first step to do this is by understanding the existing conditions in homes of older people so that appropriate steps for improvements can be taken. This paper presents an on-going study to understand the indoor environmental conditions and occupant’s responses in homes of older people in South Australia. The study is conducted using a robust indoor environmental monitoring system that is integrated with a user-friendly occupant survey system using an electronic tablet, allowing the occupants to reflect on their “right here right now” experience over different seasons in a year. The paper discusses the development of this integrated system and reports some preliminary data. Preliminary results showing the associations between measured environmental data, such as dry bulb temperature, radiant temperature, air velocity, and CO2 level, and thermal sensation, comfort, perception of indoor quality and self-reported health/well-being will also be presented.
Publisher: The University of Adelaide
Date: 2021
DOI: 10.25909/17074124
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2022
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2022
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 24-01-2022
Publisher: Emerald
Date: 03-2022
DOI: 10.1108/SASBE-08-2021-0144
Abstract: This paper presents the development of personal thermal comfort models for older adults and assesses the models’ performance compared to aggregate approaches. This is necessary as in idual thermal preferences can vary widely between older adults, and the use of aggregate thermal comfort models can result in thermal dissatisfaction for a significant number of older occupants. Personalised thermal comfort models hold the promise of a more targeted and accurate approach. Twenty-eight personal comfort models have been developed, using deep learning and environmental and personal parameters. The data were collected through a nine-month monitoring study of people aged 65 and over in South Australia, who lived independently. Modelling comprised dataset balancing and normalisation, followed by model tuning to test and select the best hyperparameters’ sets. Finally, models were evaluated with an unseen dataset. Accuracy, Cohen’s Kappa Coefficient and Area Under the Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve (AUC) were used to measure models’ performance. On average, the in idualised models present an accuracy of 74%, a Cohen’s Kappa Coefficient of 0.61 and an AUC of 0.83, representing a significant improvement in predictive performance when compared to similar studies and the “Converted” Predicted Mean Vote (PMVc) model. While current literature on personal comfort models have focussed solely on younger adults and offices, this study explored a methodology for older people and their dwellings. Additionally, it introduced health perception as a predictor of thermal preference – a variable often overseen by architectural sciences and building engineering. The study also provided insights on the use of deep learning for future studies.
No related grants have been discovered for Larissa Arakawa Martins.