The objective of this study was to assess patients' perceptions of the indoor environment of wards in a hospital in terms of architectural design, thermal comfort, indoor air quality (IAQ), lighting and acoustical parameters. The study attempted to determine the factors influencing the perceived indoor environmental quality (PIEQ) and explored the relationships between the perceived importance of indoor environmental quality (PI-IEQ) and health recovery, health satisfaction and therapeutic ambience of the hospital. A field study of the indoor environmental quality (IEQ) of 4 wards in the General hospital at Minna, Niger state, Nigeria was conducted, and responses from 271 patients were obtained. Structural equation modelling was employed for data analysis. The research identified the six IEQ factors that influenced PIEQ as architectural design features, thermal comfort, adaptive opportunities, lighting, IAQ and acoustics aspects. PIEQ had a positive influence on a ward being perceived as conducive for wellbeing. It was observed that health satisfaction had the most significant and positive influence on PI-IEQ. The second most positive influence was health recovery. Therapeutic ambience also had a positive influence on PI-IEQ but this was not significant.
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