Cargando…

Association between Sick Building Syndrome and Indoor Environmental Quality in Slovenian Hospitals: A Cross-Sectional Study

Increased exposure times to various health risk factors and the vulnerability of building users might result in significantly higher prevalence rates of sick building syndrome (SBS) in a hospital setting compared to other indoor environments. The purpose of our study was to assess the association be...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Kalender Smajlović, Sedina, Kukec, Andreja, Dovjak, Mateja
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6747401/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31484409
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16173224
_version_ 1783451894098690048
author Kalender Smajlović, Sedina
Kukec, Andreja
Dovjak, Mateja
author_facet Kalender Smajlović, Sedina
Kukec, Andreja
Dovjak, Mateja
author_sort Kalender Smajlović, Sedina
collection PubMed
description Increased exposure times to various health risk factors and the vulnerability of building users might result in significantly higher prevalence rates of sick building syndrome (SBS) in a hospital setting compared to other indoor environments. The purpose of our study was to assess the association between SBS symptoms and measured environmental parameters at a Slovenian general hospital. A combination of a self-assessment study and field measurements was conducted in order to estimate the health risk factors for SBS symptoms among the users of a Slovenian general hospital. The Chi-square test was used to analyse the association between observed health and environmental parameters. The response rate was 67.5%. A total of 12.0% of healthcare workers at hospital wards reported at least six SBS symptoms, 19.0% reported 2–3 SBS symptoms. At the observed hospital wards, the most deviations were recorded for the level of lighting (83.3%), noise level (73.6%), and room temperature (55.3%). A statistically significant association was found between indoor environmental quality and skin-related SBS symptoms (χ(2) = 0.009; p = 0.006). This information will be of great value in defining an integral strategy of environmental health activities aimed at healthier indoor environmental quality in hospitals.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-6747401
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2019
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-67474012019-09-27 Association between Sick Building Syndrome and Indoor Environmental Quality in Slovenian Hospitals: A Cross-Sectional Study Kalender Smajlović, Sedina Kukec, Andreja Dovjak, Mateja Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Increased exposure times to various health risk factors and the vulnerability of building users might result in significantly higher prevalence rates of sick building syndrome (SBS) in a hospital setting compared to other indoor environments. The purpose of our study was to assess the association between SBS symptoms and measured environmental parameters at a Slovenian general hospital. A combination of a self-assessment study and field measurements was conducted in order to estimate the health risk factors for SBS symptoms among the users of a Slovenian general hospital. The Chi-square test was used to analyse the association between observed health and environmental parameters. The response rate was 67.5%. A total of 12.0% of healthcare workers at hospital wards reported at least six SBS symptoms, 19.0% reported 2–3 SBS symptoms. At the observed hospital wards, the most deviations were recorded for the level of lighting (83.3%), noise level (73.6%), and room temperature (55.3%). A statistically significant association was found between indoor environmental quality and skin-related SBS symptoms (χ(2) = 0.009; p = 0.006). This information will be of great value in defining an integral strategy of environmental health activities aimed at healthier indoor environmental quality in hospitals. MDPI 2019-09-03 2019-09 /pmc/articles/PMC6747401/ /pubmed/31484409 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16173224 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Kalender Smajlović, Sedina
Kukec, Andreja
Dovjak, Mateja
Association between Sick Building Syndrome and Indoor Environmental Quality in Slovenian Hospitals: A Cross-Sectional Study
title Association between Sick Building Syndrome and Indoor Environmental Quality in Slovenian Hospitals: A Cross-Sectional Study
title_full Association between Sick Building Syndrome and Indoor Environmental Quality in Slovenian Hospitals: A Cross-Sectional Study
title_fullStr Association between Sick Building Syndrome and Indoor Environmental Quality in Slovenian Hospitals: A Cross-Sectional Study
title_full_unstemmed Association between Sick Building Syndrome and Indoor Environmental Quality in Slovenian Hospitals: A Cross-Sectional Study
title_short Association between Sick Building Syndrome and Indoor Environmental Quality in Slovenian Hospitals: A Cross-Sectional Study
title_sort association between sick building syndrome and indoor environmental quality in slovenian hospitals: a cross-sectional study
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6747401/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31484409
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16173224
work_keys_str_mv AT kalendersmajlovicsedina associationbetweensickbuildingsyndromeandindoorenvironmentalqualityinslovenianhospitalsacrosssectionalstudy
AT kukecandreja associationbetweensickbuildingsyndromeandindoorenvironmentalqualityinslovenianhospitalsacrosssectionalstudy
AT dovjakmateja associationbetweensickbuildingsyndromeandindoorenvironmentalqualityinslovenianhospitalsacrosssectionalstudy