• Cláudia Campos Andrade, Maria Luísa Lima, Cícero Roberto Pereira, Ferdinando Fornara, and Marino Bonaiuto.
• Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), CIS-IUL, Av. das Forças Armadas, 1649-026 Lisboa, Portugal. claudiarcandrade@gmail.com
• Health Place. 2013 May 1; 21: 122-32.

AbstractThis study analyses the processes through which the physical environment of health care settings impacts on patients' well-being. Specifically, we investigate the mediating role of perceptions of the physical and social environments, and if this process is moderated by patients' status, that is, if the objective physical environment impacts inpatients' and outpatients' satisfaction by different social-psychological processes. Patients (N=206) evaluated the physical and social environments of the care unit where they were receiving treatment, and its objective physical conditions were independently evaluated by two architects. Results showed that the objective environmental quality affects satisfaction through perceptions of environmental quality, and that patients' status moderates this relationship. For inpatients, it is the perception of quality of the social environment that mediates the relationship between objective environmental quality and satisfaction, whereas for outpatients it is the perception of quality of the physical environment. This moderated mediation is discussed in terms of differences on patients' experiences of health care environments.Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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