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Course Description: CEU Events: From Surface to Support: Clinical Evidence on How Flooring Design Influences Gait in Cognitive Aging
Every resident experiences and navigates the built environment differently. For individuals living with Alzheimer’s disease or related dementias, changes in vision, depth perception, contrast sensitivity, spatial awareness, and attention can make everyday environments more difficult to interpret. These changes may influence confidence, mobility, gait, and fall risk. A study was designed to better understand how the floor can support resident safety and independence. Conducted with researchers at the University of Georgia's Cognitive Aging Research and Education Center, the research examines how flooring characteristics — including color, contrast, pattern, texture, and material continuity — affect the movement of older adults across a spectrum of cognitive abilities as they move through a space. This session will describe the demographics of falls in older adults, introduce the research, explain why the study was conducted, and share how the findings can help reframe the floor as a meaningful part of person-centered care.
Explain how dementia-related changes in depth perception, contrast sensitivity, and visuospatial processing can affect the interpretation of flooring and influence resident safety and fall risk.
Identify how flooring attributes — including color, contrast, pattern, texture, and visual continuity — can support perception, wayfinding, and the cognitive, visual, and sensory needs of older adults.
Describe how objective gait and neural measures — including gait velocity, spatiotemporal metrics, postural sway, and brain activity — can be used to evaluate human responses to flooring design.
Apply evidence-informed design principles to select and specify flooring that supports safer, clearer, and more confident movement in senior living environments.