An appraisal of the colour of hospital wards on the recovery attitudes of psychiatric patients

Abstract

The environment where psychiatric patients are kept has been identified as an aid to their recovery attitudes. Based on the fact that the patients were being treated by qualified hands, an attempt is made to examine the significance of colour of the psychiatry ward environment as relating to the patients' rehabilitation in this paper. Number of patients admitted for psychiatric problem and those recovered (from the illness) and discharged in five psychiatric hospitals randomly selected from the western part of Nigeria were collected for a period five years (1995–2000). Among other things collected was the colour of the ward where the patients were kept for treatments. The data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS 10.0). Results showed that out 3125 patients admitted 73.3% of them recovered, of which 26.3% came from green, 37.6% from blue, 5.1% from neutralized yellow and the remaining 4.3% from white colour. Furthermore, it was observed that 93.8% of the patients kept under green, 93.9% under blue, 29.1% under neutralized yellow and 30.1% under white colour recovered from the illness. There is association between the recovery attitudes of patients and the different colours (P-value < 0.001). The strength of the relationship is also significant (P-value < 0.001). When the colours were gouped in two, namely dull (green and blue) and bright (neutralized yellow and white), out of the 73.3% that recovered 63.9% came from dull and the remaining 9.4% from bright colour. In addition, we observed that 93.9% of the patients kept under dull and 29.5% under bright colour recovered from the illness. The association between recovery attitudes and the different colours is still evident (P-value < 0.001); and that the strength of the relationship is also significant (P-value < 0.001). Consequently, the dull colours have a better positive influence on the recovery attitudes of psychiatric patients.


Keywords: psychiatric patients, psychiatry ward environment, colour therapy

Global Journal of Environmental Sciences Vol. 4(2) 2005: 165-170