Jianjian HE, Yufeng WU, Yangkai LU, Zengyan TU, Yihan JIAO

Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang 330224, China

Abstract Taking the rural left-behind elderly as the research object, this paper made an in-depth analysis of the living needs of the rural "empty-nest elderly". Combined with the current market development situation of the elderly-friendly bathroom sliding door in China, it proposed the design scheme and industrial development strategy of the suspended bathroom sliding door, to provide a certain reference for the elderly-friendly development of home decoration basic materials for elderly homes in rural areas.

Key words Rural population aging, Elderly-friendly toilet and bathroom, New sliding door

1 Introduction

In the context of the deepening aging of China’s population, the market demand for building materials for elderly care facilities is increasing. As China continues to promote the development of social economy and new-type urbanization, rural young and middle-aged people continue to flow to cities, the phenomenon of "empty-nest elderly" in rural areas has become prominent, and the pressure on elderly care has intensified. In addition, the development of rural buildings is lagging behind, and there is a general problem that the functional design cannot meet the living needs of the contemporary elderly. Therefore, it is urgently necessary to improve the living conditions for the elderly in rural areas. As the rural revitalization strategy was officially put forward in the report of the 19thNational Congress of the Communist Party of China, how to continuously improve the living conditions people in rural areas has become a key task of rural work. China has entered an aging society under the national conditions of "getting old before getting rich".

In order to alleviate the social pension pressure and ensure the living standards of the elderly, Chinese government has introduced a series of policies and systems, taking into account various factors such as the level of social and economic development, the characteristics of aging, and the wishes of the elderly. At the same time, a large number of rural young and middle-aged people have migrated to cities, while the elderly population has stayed in the rural areas, making the problem of population aging in rural areas particularly prominent, and the demand for elderly-friendly environment is constantly increasing. In contrast, the elderly-friendly development of rural residential buildings in China is still in its infancy, and there is no mature design method and design process for the aging-friendly home improvement basic materials, consequently, the daily living needs of the elderly cannot be well met. Under the guidance of relevant national policies and the capital intervention of developers, the domestic elderly care industry has developed rapidly, and many scholars have begun to pay attention to the design and research of elderly-friendly living space. From the overall research status at home and abroad, the research on the physiological and psychological characteristics of the elderly is relatively mature, but most of them are concentrated on the economic indicators and overall planning of elderly-friendly living space. The lack of in-depth and detailed research on the development of relevant home improvement basic materials for aging has made the design of old-fashioned living spaces always stay in the research stage, failing to give full play to its practical effect of optimizing the living environment of the elderly.

From the perspective of rural revitalization, taking the living habits and psychological needs of rural "empty-nest elderly" as the starting point, and combined with the data obtained from on-site surveys in rural areas, we analyzed the use of bathroom space by "empty-nest elderly" in rural areas, studied the feasibility of elderly-friendly suspended bathroom and toilet mobile sliding doors, and put forward industrial development countermeasures, so as to promote the elderly-friendly development of home improvement basic materials in rural areas. At the same time of meeting the daily life and psychological needs of the elderly and improving the living conditions of the "empty-nest elderly" in rural areas, it is expected to provide recommendations for the industrial development of basic materials for elderly home improvement.

2 China’s aging population and the living conditions of the elderly in rural areas

2.1 Current status of population aging in ChinaWith the continuous development of social economy and the significant improvement of contemporary medical level, the number of the elderly population in China continues to expand, and the growth rate is getting faster and faster. According to relevant statistical data, by the end of 2015, the number of elderly people aged 60 and above in China had reached 222 million, accounting for about 16.1% of China’s total population, of which the number of elderly people aged 65 and above was 144 million, accounting for 10.5% of the total population. According to the estimation of relevant data departments, by 2025, the number of elderly people in China will exceed 300 million, and by 2053, the proportion of elderly people in China will reach 34.9%. These indicate that the current situation of population aging in China is severe, and it will continue for a long time.

2.2 Living conditions of the elderly in rural areasThe construction of the living infrastructure for the elderly in rural areas lags behind. According to theSurveyReportonLivingConditionsoftheElderlyinUrbanandRuralAreasofChina(2018), nearly half of China’s elderly people still live in rural areas, and the living environment of most of the elderly in rural areas still needs to be improved. At present, rural housing in China was generally built in the 1980s and 1990s, with outdated design concepts and declining building functions, which can no longer meet the living needs of modern people, especially the elderly care needs of "empty nesters". According to the survey, the elderly in rural areas generally believe that housing is obviously unsuitable for the elderly, and their satisfaction with housing is low. The problems are mainly reflected in the high rate of falls among the elderly in rural areas, especially in slippery areas such as bathrooms and toilets.

At present, China’s endowment system is facing increasingly serious problems such as elderly support, medical security, and social services. It is required to make brave innovations to cope with the new challenges and requirements brought about by the increasingly prominent problem of population aging in today’s society. The key to solving the problem of aging is to tackle the living problem of the elderly. The living problem of the elderly is directly related to the physical and mental health of the elderly, and also affects the sustainability and stability of social development. Therefore, it is urgent to develop modern new buildings suitable for the elderly, especially to promote the development of buildings suitable for aging in rural areas, and to improve the quality of the living environment of the "empty-nest elderly" in rural areas is an important measure.

3 Analysis of the housing needs of the elderly in rural areas

Before promoting the development of rural housing suitable for the elderly and researching and developing basic materials suitable for the elderly, it is necessary to carry out in-depth social investigation and analysis on the living habits and physiological characteristics of the elderly. At the same time of paying attention to the safety and convenience of residential use for the elderly, it is also necessary to try our best to meet their psychological and emotional needs.

3.1 Living habits of the elderlyThe elderly have higher expectations for developing healthy living habits. With increasing age, the elderly generally suffer from chronic diseases, and the rural elderly have a lower rate of medical treatment after getting sick and a higher risk of sudden chronic diseases at home. If the elderly develop healthy living habits, it will help to prevent the sudden onset of their chronic diseases. In addition, the sleep time and sleep quality of the elderly are significantly lower than those of the young adults, and it is very important to develop regular sleep habits for the health of the elderly.

3.2 Physiological characteristics of the elderlyThe degeneration of the organ function of the elderly is an important reason for the development of elderly-friendly housing. The gradual decline of mobility and brain function in the elderly weakens their control over their own muscles, resulting in problems such as decreased physical flexibility, reduced reaction speed, reduced range of motion and difficulty in control. The degradation of sensory abilities such as vision, hearing, and touch of the elderly has seriously affected their judgment of the external environment. In particular, the decline of vision causes blurred vision at close range, weakens the ability to perceive light and distinguish colors, and it is difficult to make accurate judgments on the shape, size and movement trajectory of objects. The vision problem of the elderly is very prominent, and nearly 1/3 of the elderly have difficulties in vision.

3.3 Psychological needs of the elderlyThe decline of the physical function of the elderly will greatly affect their psychological activities. In particular, the "empty-nest elderly" in rural areas are prone to psychological problems such as mental loneliness and inner emptiness due to their long-term lack of care for their children and difficulty in adapting to modern life. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the psychological care for the elderly in the design of elderly-friendly housing, and give full play to the positive role of elderly-friendly housing in terms of physical and mental health and emotional relief.

4 Defects of traditional bathroom and toilet mobile sliding doors

The bathroom sliding door has the function of separating the bathroom space and has been widely used. Traditional bathroom sliding doors all have track grooves, and the track grooves have the following problems. (i) The track groove on the ground is easy to hide dirt, and some garbage such as hair will get stuck in the track grooves of the traditional bathroom sliding door. Besides, it is very difficult to clean up the garbage in the track grooves. Over a long time, it will not only affect the aesthetics, but also some slight smell will give out. (ii) When entering and exiting the bathroom and toilet, the elderly with limited mobility at home may easily trip over the track grooves on the ground, posing a safety hazard. (iii) When people step in and out, the track is easily damaged and deformed, so the quality requirement of the track grooves is very high.

5 Design concepts and principles of suspended bathroom and toilet mobile sliding doors

5.1 Design conceptsThe design of the elderly-friendly suspended bathroom and toilet mobile sliding door takes the following concepts. (i) The design should follow the habits of the elderly in using bathroom doors. Considering the physical function degradation and living needs of the elderly, the mobile sliding door for the elderly suspended bathroom and toilet abandons the ground track groove and eliminates the hidden safety hazards when the elderly use it. (ii) The design should take into account the ergonomic characteristics of the elderly. As people enter old age, changes in age, health status,etc.will affect the changes in physical characteristics. For example, the height of the elderly will be reduced by 2.5%-3.0% compared with their younger time. Therefore, the design, development and practical application of the elderly-friendly suspended bathroom and toilet mobile sliding door must conform to the ergonomic space scale of the elderly to ensure their comfortable and convenient use. (iii) The design should guarantee the safety of the elderly when using it. The design of the elderly-friendly suspended bathroom and toilet mobile sliding door should minimize the probability of accidental tripping and injury for the elderly, to improve the safety of the elderly’s home life. (iv) The design should optimize product performance and improve market competitiveness. In view of the shortcomings of the traditional bathroom sliding door, which is difficult to clean and high in production cost, it is necessary to optimize the design to make up for the design defects of the traditional bathroom sliding door.

5.2 Design principlesThe elderly-friendly suspended bathroom and toilet mobile sliding door is composed of pulley, right door body, track groove, left door body, door handle, rotating shaft, floor, water-absorbing sponge layer. Its main structural feature is that the top of the track groove is fixedly installed on the top wall of the bathroom, and the track groove takes on an inverted U-shaped structure. The left and right door bodies are connected to the inner cavity of the track groove through pulleys, and several rotating shafts with pulleys on both sides are installed on the upper parts of the left and right door bodies in sequence from left to right. Place the water absorbing sponge layer at the bottom of the door body on both sides and install the door handle on each side. Specifically, the vertical distance from the bottom of the door body on both sides to the floor is 3-4 mm, and the thickness of the water-absorbing sponge layer is 4-5 mm. The specific structure is shown in Fig.1.

Note: 1. pulley, 2. right door body, 3. track groove, 4. left door body, 5. door handle, 6. rotating shaft, 7. floor, 8. water-absorbing sponge layer.Fig.1 Design structure of elderly-friendly suspended bathroom and toilet mobile sliding door

When the elderly use the elderly-friendly suspended bathroom to move the sliding door, they can open the doors on both sides through the door handle. When the door is opened, the pulley in the inner cavity of the track groove will be driven to move, and the water-absorbing sponge layer will absorb the sewage and hair in the door seam, so as to effectively solve the problem of sanitary dead corners of the track groove. When the water-absorbing sponge layer at the bottom end of the door body on both sides reaches the saturated state, it can be disassembled for cleaning and then installed and used again, so as to realize repeated use and reduce the use cost.

6 Significance of promoting the elderly-friendly suspended bathroom and toilet mobile sliding door

This elderly-friendly suspended bathroom and toilet mobile sliding door greatly saves installation materials and installation costs. Besides, because the bottom of the door is not in direct contact with the floor, the ground track can be omitted, which effectively prevents the retention of sewage and hair, and eliminates the sanitary dead corner of the bathroom. In addition, such suspended mobile sliding door is conducive to the convenient environment of entering and leaving the bathroom. Compared with the horizontal sliding door, the switch is more convenient and flexible, and it is also more conducive to wheelchair walking, which is more convenient for the living of the elderly, which is in line with the elderly-friendly development of the current housing design. Furthermore, the suspended mobile sliding door can highlight the integrity of the space, which is conducive to the extension of the interior space and enhances the visual effect of the bathroom. Compared with the traditional sliding door, this elderly-friendly suspended bathroom and toilet mobile sliding door further embodies the humanized design innovation, is more suitable for the public, and provides more protection for the people’s home safety.

7 Conclusions

At present, China is vigorously promoting the home-based elderly care model in rural areas. To this end, it is necessary to promote the elderly-friendly renovation and upgrading of old rural houses and home improvement facilities on the basis of the original buildings and by combining the living habits, physiological characteristics and psychological needs of the rural elderly people, to build a modern and elderly-friendly residence that meets the actual needs of the elderly. The elderly-friendly suspended bathroom and toilet mobile sliding door not only reduces the production requirements and the difficulty of cleaning, but also provides a more convenient environment for the elderly and special people who need to use wheelchairs to enter and exit the bathroom, and it has made an important step in the elderly-friendly development for home improvement basic materials.