Home Assessment Profile

The Home Assessment Profile is a health professional-administered housing quality assessment tool that aims to assess how suitable the home environment is for older adult to perform their daily activities. It is a 28-item home assessment tool and the items are categorized into seven sections: into house, living room, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, other relevant pathways, and other outside access. Core assessments include whether physical structures in each room or pathways are accessible, whether the home environment is well lit, and whether the floors, storage spaces, showers and seats are ergonomically compliant.

The hazard score is derived from an assessment of the interaction between the person and their environmental structure, where “0” is no hazard, “1” is mild hazard, and “2” is moderate to severe hazard. For instance, an individual who experiences minor difficulty standing up from their favourite easy chair but can do so successfully would be assigned a score of 1 on this task. The frequency rating indicates the regularity with which the individual encounters the identified hazard, on a scale from 0 (never) to 5 (several times daily).