Sick building syndrome and office space design in Cairo, Egypt

Sick building syndrome is a group of symptoms relatively common among office workers; such symptoms could have an impact on the worker's productivity. The aim of this research is to provide a better understanding of the relation between design elements, indoor environmental quality and sick building syndrome within office spaces in Cairo, Egypt. Results show that a healthy environment leads to higher level of office productivity. Several design elements were chosen to be analysed according to previous studies, and their relation to the indoor environmental quality was noted. The prevalence of these elements on sick building syndrome was studied. An empirical comparative study has been conducted within two administrative office buildings at Cairo campus of the ‘Arab Academy for Science Technology & Maritime Transport' in Egypt. Data collection was done by a self-administrated questionnaire. The questionnaire includes personal background, work design elements, socio-demographic elements and symptoms of sick building syndrome. Headache and fatigue were the most prevalent symptoms in both buildings. This study revealed that office comfort is the most important factor affecting office occupants and should be taken seriously when designing office spaces for better working environment free of sick building syndrome.

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ASSESSMENT OF INDOOR ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY AND OCCURRENCE OF SICK BUILDING SYNDROME IN SMALL OFFICES IN PENANG, MALAYSIA

Jurnal Teknologi ◽

10.11113/jt.v75.4997 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 75 (5) ◽

Author(s):

Ang Qiu Mei ◽

Md Azree Othuman Mydin

Keyword(s):

Environmental Quality ◽

Sick Building Syndrome ◽

Quality Measurement ◽

Comfort Level ◽

Working Environment ◽

Indoor Environmental Quality ◽

Sick Building ◽

The Difference

This study was done to investigate the relationship between indoor environmental quality and prevalence of Sick Building Syndrome in six small offices inPenangIsland. Indoor environmental quality measurement was conducted according to relevant standards. There are totally Sixty workers were selected to participate in an electronic questionnaire survey. Questionnaire was used to record the comfort level of respondents in the case studies and level of sick building syndrome faced by respondents. Through indoor environmental quality measurement, it is found that most of the offices facing the lighting and noise problem. The result from the questionnaire shows that in overall, the occupants satisfy with their working environment in term of indoor environmental quality although the result also shows the opinions of occupants on dissatisfaction on certain indoor environmental parameter according to case study. The study also found that most of the occupants feel drowsy and fatigue when they work within the offices. Besides, due to the difference of the indoor environmental quality of the buildings, the occupants are suffered from different symptoms of the sick building syndrome.

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Allostatic Load Model Associated with Indoor Environmental Quality and Sick Building Syndrome among Office Workers

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0095791 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 9 (4) ◽

pp. e95791 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Chien-Cheng Jung ◽

Hsiu-Hao Liang ◽

Hui-Ling Lee ◽

Nai-Yun Hsu ◽

Huey-Jen Su

Keyword(s):

Environmental Quality ◽

Allostatic Load ◽

Sick Building Syndrome ◽

Office Workers ◽

Indoor Environmental Quality ◽

Load Model ◽

Sick Building

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Evaluation of occupants’ well-being and perception towards indoor environmental quality in Malaysia affordable housing

Journal of Facilities Management ◽

10.1108/jfm-11-2017-0070 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 17 (1) ◽

pp. 90-106 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Syahrul Nizam Kamaruzzaman ◽

Ainur Mardiha Azmal

Keyword(s):

Environmental Quality ◽

Affordable Housing ◽

Questionnaire Survey ◽

Sick Building Syndrome ◽

Well Being ◽

Health Condition ◽

Indoor Environmental Quality ◽

Content Type ◽

Housing Area ◽

Sick Building

Purpose This paper aims to identify the indoor environmental quality in an affordable housing, as well as the health condition of users. Furthermore, it aims to find the relationship between quality of the indoor environment (IEQ) and sick building syndrome (SBS) and the satisfaction level of the occupants towards the IEQ factor, as well as the importance of the factors in the occupants’ view. Additionally, the purpose of this pilot study is to validate the questionnaire and identify the possible outcome of this research for the main study. Design/methodology/approach There are a few methods to achieve the objective of this paper: first is by literature review and second is by a survey. There are two types of survey made: observation survey and questionnaire survey. The purpose of observation survey is to survey the surrounding and the condition of the apartments, while questionnaire survey was distributed to the respondents in the affordable housing area. Next, is analysis and discussion of the survey, and finally, summary. Findings Aside from achieving the validity of the questionnaire survey, the results of the survey have found that the respondents are dissatisfied with the noise and glare level, as well as the amount of artificial lighting in their unit. Additionally, they have rated health, ventilation and amount of air movement as the most important IEQ factors. More importantly, the occupants have experienced the symptoms of SBS and the health condition of the building occupants. The results show that the most frequent symptoms affected the respondents are fatigue, dizziness and a headache. Originality/value This paper has indicated the IEQ in the affordable housing and identifies the health risk of occupants, specifically in Malaysia.

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