Self-reported health and comofrt in modern office buildings: first results from the European Officair study
article
In the European research project OFFICAIR, a procedure was
developed to determine associations between characteristics of European offices
and health and comfort of office workers, through a checklist and a selfadministered
questionnaire including environmental, physiological,
psychological, and social aspects. This procedure was applied in 167 office
buildings in eight European countries (Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, France,
Hungary, the Netherlands, and Finland) during the winter of 2011–2012. About
26 735 survey invitation e-mails were sent, and 7441 office workers were
included in the survey. Among respondents who rated an overall comfort less
than 4 (23%), ‘noise (other than from building systems)’, air ‘too dry’, and
temperature ‘too variable’ were the main complaints selected. An increase of
perceived control over indoor climate was positively associated with the
perceived indoor environment quality. Almost one-third of office workers
suffered from dry eyes and headache in the last 4 weeks. Physical building
characteristics were associated with occupants’ overall satisfaction (acoustical
solutions, mold growth, complaints procedure, cleaning activities) and health
(number of occupants, lack of operable windows, presence of carpet and
cleaning activities). OFFICAIR project provides a useful database to identify
stressors related to indoor environmental quality and office worker’s health.
developed to determine associations between characteristics of European offices
and health and comfort of office workers, through a checklist and a selfadministered
questionnaire including environmental, physiological,
psychological, and social aspects. This procedure was applied in 167 office
buildings in eight European countries (Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, France,
Hungary, the Netherlands, and Finland) during the winter of 2011–2012. About
26 735 survey invitation e-mails were sent, and 7441 office workers were
included in the survey. Among respondents who rated an overall comfort less
than 4 (23%), ‘noise (other than from building systems)’, air ‘too dry’, and
temperature ‘too variable’ were the main complaints selected. An increase of
perceived control over indoor climate was positively associated with the
perceived indoor environment quality. Almost one-third of office workers
suffered from dry eyes and headache in the last 4 weeks. Physical building
characteristics were associated with occupants’ overall satisfaction (acoustical
solutions, mold growth, complaints procedure, cleaning activities) and health
(number of occupants, lack of operable windows, presence of carpet and
cleaning activities). OFFICAIR project provides a useful database to identify
stressors related to indoor environmental quality and office worker’s health.
TNO Identifier
526217
Source
Indoor Air, pp. 1-20.
Pages
1-20
Files
To receive the publication files, please send an e-mail request to TNO Repository.