ABSTRACT

Objective: This study aims to analyze the trends, item contents, and scoring system of a home safety assessment by systematically reviewing published articles on using home safety assessment tools. Methods: Articles on the home safety assessment of the elderly in the community published from January 2000 to December 2019 were searched using Embase, NDSL, and PubMed databases. Based on the selection criteria and exclusion criteria of the 394 articles, a total of 11 articles were finally selected and analyzed. Results: As a result, seven (63.6%) articles of the one group pre-and post-group studies of evidence level III were the most common. A total of 10 home environment assessment tools were used in 11 studies, and the Safety Assessment of Function and the Environment for Rehabilitation (SAFER-HOME) was the most commonly applied (23.1%). Occupational therapists (81.8%) were the most frequently asked to assess the home environment. Most of the home environment assessment tools analyzed in this study aimed to assess the risk factors of the home and the outside environment and to promote a safe occupational performance. Conclusion: A total of 10 home safety assessments were analyzed among 11 articles. They generally consist of items related to falls, safety, disaster plans, and medication environments. A home safety assessment by occupational therapists includes factors regarding occupational performance within the surrounding environment as well as the physical environment. The items in a home safety assessment reflected the house and lifestyle of western culture, and thus it will be necessary to develop our own culture-based home assessment in the future.