The influence of the workplace indoor environmental quality on the incidence of psychological and physical symptoms in intensive care units

The present study aimed to investigate the risk of symptomatological complaints resulting from exposure to indoor environmental quality variables in intensive care units (ICUs) and to determine the exposure risk caused by the interaction of these variables. Nine ICUs in the city of João Pessoa/Brazil, were selected, and for three consecutive days, temperature, noise, lighting and air quality measurements were collected. Simultaneously, 128 professionals were interviewed to assess their perceptions of, satisfaction with and health conditions associated with the environment. The risk of exposure to adverse environmental conditions was estimated using Bayesian networks and validated according to the predictive values and the area under the Receiver Operating-Characteristic curve. The results indicated that the ICUs were at the limits of the hygienic standards stipulated for the sector; employees working had a 42.2% probability of experiencing physical symptoms associated with environmental discomfort and a 45.3% probability of experiencing psychological symptoms associated with environmental discomfort, representing increases of 24.5% and 6.9%, respectively, above the basal probability. The variables with the highest impact on the health of professionals were temperature variables, which were estimated using the average rating predicted by ISO 7730/2005 and self-reported perceptual variables. The interaction between environmental attributes in a risk scenario indicated that the environmental temperature could affect other environmental variables that impact the health of professionals. Hence, the risk arising from an uncomfortable environment is not simply the sum of the individual risks for each attribute; rather, it is the result of synergy between the measurable and perceived variables.