1. Associations of perceived indoor environmental quality with stress in the workplace
- Author
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Josip Car, Nuraini Nazeha, Dhiya Mahirah, Thuan-Quoc Thach, Adam Charles Roberts, Yichi Zhang, George I. Christopoulos, Chee Kiong Soh, Gerard Dunleavy, Charlotte Sauter, Yuri Rykov, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine), School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Business School, and Centre for Population Health Sciences
- Subjects
Environmental Engineering ,010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Personal Satisfaction ,010501 environmental sciences ,Logistic regression ,01 natural sciences ,Occupant Satisfaction ,Surveys and Questionnaires ,Environmental health ,Humans ,Quality (business) ,Workplace ,Air quality index ,Environmental quality ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,media_common ,Singapore ,Impact assessment ,Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health ,Thermal comfort ,Environmental Exposure ,Building and Construction ,Odds ratio ,Environmental engineering [Engineering] ,Light quality ,Dose-Response Relation ,Air Pollution, Indoor ,Psychology ,Stress, Psychological - Abstract
Indoor environmental quality (IEQ) is a general indicator of the quality of conditions inside a building. We investigated associations of perceived IEQ including air quality, thermal comfort, noise, and light quality with stress at work and the extent to which workplace location modifies these associations. We recruited 464 full-time workers from four companies in Singapore. Data on socio-demographic characteristics, lifestyle/health-related factors, and workplace factors were collected through self-administered questionnaires. Perceived IEQ satisfaction scores of all four factors were collected using the validated OFFICAIR questionnaire. We fitted a logistic regression model to assess associations between each perceived IEQ score and stress at work, adjusting for potential confounders. The odds ratio for stress at work associated with a 1-unit increase in perceived air quality score was 0.88 (0.82-0.94), 0.89 (0.82-0.97) for thermal comfort, 0.93 (0.87-0.98) for noise, and 0.88 (0.82-0.94) for light quality. Significant associations were found in office and control rooms for all four perceived IEQ, except for thermal comfort in office rooms. Higher satisfaction levels of perceived air quality, thermal comfort, noise, and lighting, were significantly associated with a reduction in stress at work. Our findings could potentially provide a useful tool for environmental health impact assessment for buildings. Ministry of National Development (MND) National Research Foundation (NRF) This research is supported in part by the Singapore Ministry of National Development and the National Research Foundation, Prime Minister’s Office under the Land and Liveability National Innovation Challenge (L2 NIC) Research Programme (L2 NIC Award No. L2NICCFP1-2013-2).
- Published
- 2020
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