Relationships between occupant personality and the sick building syndrome explored
Berglund, B. and Gunnarsson, A.G
2000 Indoor Air, 10(3): 152
Berglund, B. and Gunnarsson, A.G, (2000), "Relationships between occupant personality and the sick building syndrome explored", Indoor Air, 10(3): 152.
Abstract:
Increasing evidence shows that certain personality traits, such as negative affectivity (trait NA), are strongly associated with the reporting of symptoms. The role of personality in sick building syndrome (SBS) symptom reporting is therefore explored with the aid of a questionnaire completed by occupants living in apartments with indoor climate problems. A good fit to empirical data was obtained for a path model in which somatization intervenes between a general psychological factor (predominated by trait NA) and SBS. Occupants with normal and aberrant NA profiles were classified by cluster analysis and further divided according to frequency of symptoms. For occupants with 5 or more SBS symptoms, those with aberrant NA profiles have very similar SBS symptom profiles to those with normal NA profiles. This indicates that an occupant's trait NA score cannot be used for predicting his or her SBS symptom profile or frequency of SBS symptoms. An unexpected finding was that the occupants with aberrant NA profiles also perceived factors in the indoor (air) environment as less adverse than the 5 or more symptom reporting occupants with normal NA profile. Pennebaker and Brittingham's competition of external and internal cues model may explain the results for the occupants with aberrant NA profiles, however, our empirical data indicate that, unexpectedly, these occupants may not over-report SBS symptoms but rather under-report adverse environmental perceptions.
Practical Implications
Building-related indoor air quality (IAQ) problems may appear in any building independent of its use. SBS-affected occupants may be utilized in the search for building-related causes. The influence of person-related factors in sick building syndrome (SBS) is significant and must be included in future investigations of buildings. A new questionnaire method needs to be developed for practical use. This method should separate person-related causes for occupant symptoms from building-related causes. It would diagnose buildings with SBS-affected occupants and evaluate the efficiency of building renovations.