[Housing conditions and self care with the aged]

The spatial and architectural characteristics as well as the facilities of flats and buildings occupied by the sixty-to-ninety-year-old metropolitan population are investigated, in order to determine a) the conditions under which the aged perform their basic household maintenance as well as their activities of every-day life; b) the (working) conditions under which specific ambulant services could be performed. The data were obtained from residents of different urban environments: 1. an inner-city area with predominantly old buildings, 2. a suburban new housing development. The control group was a sample of aged persons from the entire West Berlin area. The old urban region provides conditions, which place very high demands on the physical capabilities and constitute definite health hazards. Self-care under such conditions means "muddling through". The risk that even a minor physical disability would imply total dependence on care is considerable.