Comfort: Beyond HFE to Patient Outcomes and Comfort Zones

Abstract

Comfort has been a staple of outcome measures in Human Factors / Ergonomics (HFE) for generations. We have theories of comfort and validated measures. But HFE is not alone in studying comfort. Here we review two adjacent applications of comfort: In patient outcomes and in management’s idea of comfort zones. We find some but not much overlap between these three fields and the ability for HFE to learn positive and negative lessons from each.