Investigation of pregnant women thermal comfort in the waiting area of the hospital in South China, Guangzhou

Indoor thermal environment significantly affects human health and comfort. Although several studies have investigated this aspect in numerous buildings, a gap exists with regard to the hospital waiting areas and the thermal comfort of pregnant women. Therefore, this study assessed the ambient conditions in the waiting areas of obstetric departments in four Guangzhou hospitals during summer and winter and conducted a questionnaire survey on pregnant women and males & non-pregnant female patients in the waiting areas to analyze the differences in their thermal sensation. A total of 2594 questionnaire responses were collected during the survey period, including 1477 and 1117 responses during summer and winter, respectively. Further, the predicted mean vote (PMV) model was applied to evaluate the thermal comfort and differences in the thermal sensation between pregnant women and escorts. The results indicated that the PMV model could not accurately predict the thermal comfort of the subjects and overestimated their thermal sensation. Additionally, the acceptable operative temperature ranges in the obstetric waiting areas were 23.8–28.6 °C and 18.5–23.5 °C, and acceptable standard effective temperature ranges were 21.0–27.9 °C and 19.0–25.8 °C during summer and winter, respectively. Further, the neutral temperature of pregnant women was lower than that of the males & non-pregnant female patients. The results of this study can guide the indoor thermal environments in the hospitals for the improved comfort of pregnant women, which in turn, will benefit their health as well as that of their babies.