Influence of Hospital Outdoor Space on Physiological Electroencephalography (EEG) Feedback of Staff

Abstract

Objectives: To investigate the differences and relationships between different outdoor spaces of hospitals on the physiological electroencephalography (EEG) feedback (PEEGF) of staff. Background: Relieving the pressure of hospital staff is essential, and several studies have revealed that even short-term exposure to outdoor space has a decompression effect. Yet, the focus is scarcely centered on the differences and influential relationships between the PEEGF from different outdoor spaces where the staff spend time, particularly in large-scale hospitals in China. Methods: EEG measurement equipment was utilized to obtain the value of β wave (vβw) that represents the stress and anxiety of staff in three different outdoor spaces: open, traffic, and rest. On the basis of EEG data, correlation analysis was conducted in accordance with the proportion of space elements. Results: The proportion of natural elements, such as landscape ( r = −.800** p=.005) and waterscape ( r = −.782* p=.013), were negatively correlated with the vβw produced by staff, while the proportion of hard paving was positive ( r = .817** p=.004) with more vβw produced by staff. In other words, the percentage of landscape and waterscape can reduce stress, while hard paving has the opposite effect. Further, there was a difference in the amount of vβw generated between nurses and administrators in the open space at the entrance of the main building ( p = .043). Conclusions: The present study revealed the influence of different outdoor space elements of the hospital on the physiological feedback of staff, demonstrated the practical necessity of evidence-based design, and proposed relevant optimization suggestions.

Influence of Hospital Outdoor Rest Space on the Eye Movement Measures and Self-Rating Restoration of Staff

“…Since exposure to the natural environment has a decompression effect on medical staff ( 3 ), the role of hospital outdoor rest space (HORS) is becoming more and more significant as the main carrier of the natural environment in the medical environment. Although hospital staff have minimal time to use HORS under heavy work pressure, even short-term contact with HORS during commuting could help staff obtain positive brain wave feedback and work pressure relief ( 4 ).…”

Relationship between psycho-physiological indicators and task performance under various indoor space designs for telecommuting environment by introducing mixed-reality

“…This device can obtain brain activates from four lobe: (1) frontal lobe: AF3, AF4, F3, F4, F7, F8, FC5 and FC6; (2) temporal lobe: T7 and T8; (3) occipital lobe: O1 and O2; and (4) parietal lobe: P7 and P8 (Lievesley, Wozencroft and Ewins, 2011). Obtaining the values from these lobes helps in the prediction of emotions and behaviors of each subject, and shows the working state of the human brain 22 , 23 .…”

EEG-based spatial elements optimisation design method

“…This study hopes to obtain the space that indices a higher meditation value and lower attention value through an optimisation calculation to reduce people’s sense of tension and anxiety in the environment and increase their sense of relaxation. During the experiment, to ensure that the experimenter can produce more reasonable EEG feedback corresponding to the scene during observations, each scene is stopped in front of the experimenter for 5 s (Li & Munemoto, 2010 ) (Sun & Li, 2021 ) (Cui et al, 2021 ); the EEG values of the first and last seconds are discarded and the average value of the EEG in the middle section is taken as the reference value for the genetic algorithm (objective). The specific formula is as follows.…”