Adaptability of kitchen furniture for elderly people in terms of safety/Sigurnosna prilagodenost kuhinjskog namjestaja starijim osobama

The number of senior citizens is rapidly increasing, which consequently signifies an increase in the number of people having sight, hearing or memory difficulties, people with hampered mobility, and people who find it increasingly difficult to process information. Elderly persons experience a greater degree of risk whilst performing daily tasks in their kitchens. Moreover, they are more susceptible to infection and illnesses, necessitating greater care to achieve hygienic conditions within their kitchens. The goal of our research was to determine whether people are generally content with the functionality of their kitchens and whether the degree of dissatisfaction increases with the age of the users. The study aims to pinpoint any major problems facing elderly people whilst working in their kitchens and to establish criteria for kitchen furniture design that could be tailored to senior users' interests, with the focus on safety. This research was carried out via individual surveys at the respondents' homes. 204 respondents participated in the research. The results show that most users do not realize that, with more appropriate kitchen equipment, they could perform daily tasks faster, safer, and with less effort. Common shortcomings include insufficient lighting (32 %), inappropriate sequential composition of work surfaces (56 %), ease of hygiene maintenance (68 %), inappropriately--shaped furniture (72 %), and tasks that become troublesome because of declining memory (75 %). We believe that it is necessary to design kitchen equipment specifically adjusted for the needs of the elderly. Key words: kitchen, elderly, senior, equipment, design, safety, ergonomics Udjel starijih osoba u stanovnitvu u enormnom je porastu, slijedom cega se povecava broj ljudi koji imaju slabiji vid, sluh, memoriju, fizicke probleme i probleme s percipiranjem informacija. Stariji su zbog toga osjetljiviji na ozljede, koje mogu nastati pri obavljanju svakodnevnih poslova u kuhinji. Osim toga, za njihovu je sigurnost vazno voditi brigu o higijenskim standardima jer su osjetljiviji na infekcije i bolesti. Cilj ovog istrazivanja bio je utvrditi jesu li ljudi zadovoljni funkcionalnocu njihove kuhinje i osjecaju li se sigurno te raste li nezadovoljstvo kuhinjom sa starocu korisnika. Zeljeli smo identificirati probleme s kojima se pri radu u kuhinji suocavaju stariji ljudi i utvrditi kriterije za izradu kuhinjskog namjetaja prilagocenoga starijim ljudima u smislu sigurnosti. Istrazivanje