Sick Building Syndrome in Nurses of Intensive Care Units and Its Associated Factors

Abstract

Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) is a set of undesirable physical and psychological conditions whose symptoms appear when entering the building and disappear after leaving it. The most well-known symptoms of SBS include problems of nervous and respiratory systems and skin. Since nurses spend many hours in the hospital and enclosed spaces, they are exposed to many factors related to the SBS, which can affect their health and the quality of patient care. Objective: This study aimed to investigate SBS and its related factors in nurses working in special care units of hospitals. Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional study in 2016 on 144 working nurses of special care units at educational and treatment centers in Rasht City, Iran. They were randomly selected proportional to the number of nurses working in each special care unit. For evaluating SBS symptoms and indoor air quality, the "Miljömedicin 040 Questionnaire" (English version A) was used. The collected data from the questionnaire were analyzed using the Chi-squared and Independent t-tests. Results: About 47.2% of nurses complained of SBS. The most common symptoms of this syndrome were headache, fatigue, heavy-headed feeling, concentration difficulty, and nausea/dizziness. According to the Chi-squared test results, there was a significant correlation between SBS and variables of air movement, fluctuating room temperature, stuffy bad air, dry air, too much light, light reflection, dust and dirt in the workplace, and contact with static electricity (P<0.05). Conclusion: There is a high prevalence of SBS among (nearly half of) the study nurses and it has a relationship with factors such as air movement, fluctuating room temperature, stuffy bad air, dry air, too much light, light reflection, dust and dirt in the workplace, and contact with static electricity. It is recommended that workplace cleanliness, the ventilation system quality, and standard lighting level in special care units be improved. Also, it is very important the nurses working in special care units know the factors associated with SBS.

Indoor Air Quality in Healthcare Units—A Systematic Literature Review Focusing Recent Research

“…The presence of vulnerable individuals and the characteristics of the ongoing activities highlight the importance of adequately managing IAQ in healthcare facilities. Headaches, fatigue, dryness and irritation of the eyes and skin are common complaints of healthcare professionals, which have often been associated with poor IAQ [7][8][9][10][11]). In addition, hospitals operate on a full-time basis (24 h per day, seven days a week), with no idle time to recover from activities' emissions and consequent impact on IAQ.…”

Sick Building Syndrome on Healthcare Workers in Hospital Buildings

“…Healthcare workers spend much time in hospitals and confined spaces. They are exposed to many factors associated with SBS, which can affect the health and quality of patient care [27] . Compared with healthcare workers (12.0%), healthcare colleagues (6.4%) had a lower prevalence of six or more SBS symptoms.…”

Relationship Between Indoor Air Quality and Sick Building Syndrome in Post Office Building in Bandung

“…When a person is in a building with poor indoor air quality, various symptoms and complaints can arise (Cincinelli & Martellini, 2017;Leung, 2015). Several researches show a correlation between indoor air quality and the incidence of SBS in building (Arikan et al, 2018;Chang et al, 2015;Jafakesh et al, 2019). In order to avoid SBS in the buildings, the HVAC system plays the most important role (Gupta et al, 2007;Lu et al, 2018).…”

“…The cause of SBS is not caused by a single factor, but it is always associated with several factors, such as poor ventilation, outdoor and indoor air quality, biological contaminants, allergy, gender, smoking, workload, as reported in China, United Kingdom, Iran, Sweden and Turkey (Arikan et al, 2018;Belachew et al, 2018;Jafakesh et al, 2019). A study conducted by Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) reported that SBS can be caused by several factors in a building, for example due to inadequate ventilation (52%), indoor contaminants (16%), outdoor contaminants (10%), presence of microbes (5%), pollution from building materials (4%) and others (13%) (OSHA, 2011).…”