By Stephen Beech via SWNS
Feng Shui design in hospital rooms may benefit patients, suggests a new study.
Sometimes called Chinese geomancy, it is a traditional practice that originated in Ancient China and claims to use energy forces to “harmonize” people with their surrounding environment.
While Feng Shui was not directly associated with lower anxiety in patients, the online study showed that virtual hospital rooms designed according to the principles of evidence-based design or the principles of Feng Shui – meaning “wind-water” – were associated with greater potential benefit for viewers than standard hospital rooms.
Study leader Dr. Emma Zijlstra said: “Hospital designers might consider employing specific design principles in an effort to improve patients’ experiences.
“Growing evidence suggests there are beneficial outcomes from an approach known as evidence-based design. For instance, exposure to more daylight in hospitals is associated with lower stress and pain.
“Other well-known design approaches include Feng Shui, a Chinese system based on hypothetical energy flow, and the use of proportions following the golden ratio.”
But she said experimental evidence on their relative benefits in hospitals was lacking until now.
Dr. Zijlstra and her colleagues randomly assigned each of 558 study participants to view online representations and information about a virtual hospital room designed using one of four approaches: Feng Shui, the golden ratio, evidence-based design or, as a control, a standard design from a real-life hospital.
Only people who had previously been hospitalized at some point were invited to participate.
After experiencing the virtual rooms, the participants completed a questionnaire that included standard measures of anxiety and other health indicators.
Analysis of their answers showed that, compared to participants who viewed the standard rooms, those who viewed rooms with evidence-based design reported less anxiety and a greater sense of control, social support, distraction from negative thoughts, and pleasantness of the room.
The findings, published in the journal PLOS One, showed Feng Shui design was not directly associated with lower anxiety, but participants who viewed the Feng Shui rooms did have greater senses of social support, positive distraction, and pleasantness of the room.
There was no evidence for any benefits of golden ratio-based design.
The researchers say that, on the basis of their findings, rooms designed according to the principles of evidence-based design or Feng Shui might benefit patients.
They noted similarities between the two approaches, such as the incorporation of greenery.
However, the researchers say it was unclear how well the online findings might translate to real-life hospital settings.
Dr. Zijlstra, of Hanze University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands, said: “To our knowledge, this is the first and largest randomized controlled trial linking design principles, partly ancient and world-renowned, directly to anxiety in hospital rooms.”
She added: “This study showed that both Feng Shui and evidence-based design are capable in effecting anxiety and it is important that large follow-up studies are conducted to examine the effect of specific design features.”
