Evaluation of environmental assessment tools for settings for individuals living with dementia.

Introduction: The overarching goal of research on physical settings for individuals living with dementia is to identify associations between designed features within the built environment and outcomes of interest. Over the past three decades numerous environmental assessment tools have been developed in several countries, responding to a changing set of care industry values that increasingly prioritize a holistic, quality-of-life-driven person-centered care (PCC) model over a biomedical approach to long-term care (LTC) provision. This article reviews the diversity, constructs, strengths, and limitations of existing environmental assessment tools and identifies gaps for future tool development.