Stress reduction in the hospital room: Applying Ulrich's theory of supportive design

Hospital rooms may exacerbate or reduce patients' stress. According to Ulrich's (1991) theory of supportive design, the hospital environment will reduce stress if it fosters perceptions of control (PC), social support (SS), and positive distraction (PD). An experimental study was conducted to test this theory. Participants were asked to imagine a hospitalization scenario and were exposed to one of 8 lists of elements that the hospital room would provide selected to facilitate PC, SS, PD, or 1 of all the possible combinations of these elements. Results confirmed Ulrich's theory. Participants expected significantly less stress in the situations where all (or only PD and SS) elements were present. Meditational analyses confirmed that the number of elements in the hospital room affects expected stress through the perceptions of how much positive distraction and social support it is perceived to provide, but not through the perception of the level of perceived control available.