A Longitudinal Study of the Health Effects of Indoor Air Among Office Workers

Details

• Personal Author:
  Burton S ; Sieber, W. Karl
• Description:
  In recent years, concerns over the increasing numbers of health complaints among workers in indoor environments have prompted efforts to identify factors associated with such complaints. Many health complaints have involved nonspecific symptoms and are sometimes called building-related symptoms or the sick building syndrome (SBS). SBS symptoms may include irritative symptoms of the eye, nose, or throat; dermal symptoms such as dry skin; and nervous symptoms such as headache, fatigue, or dizziness. Factors affecting the prevalence of SBS among 88 employees who worked in a building where increased nonspecific symptoms were reported (a 'sick' building) and who later worked in a renovated building from which no complaints were obtained, were investigated. The prevalence of SBS symptoms decreased from 23% in the 'sick' building to 4% in the renovated building. Logistic regression was first used to determine those variables most highly associated with SBS in each building, and then those variables were included in a mixed model accounting for building type and correlation among employee's responses. Factors affecting SBS prevalence across time included building environmental conditions and employees' perception of their workstation and satisfaction with conditions at work. Neither age nor gender were found to be statistically significant. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Air Pollution Air Pollution, Indoor Environmental Health Environmental Monitoring Hazardous Substances Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Safety Workplace
• Keywords:
  Air-quality Air-quality-monitoring Air-sickness Employee-exposure Employee-health Employees Health-hazards Indoor-air-pollution Indoor-environmental-quality Models Occupational-exposure Occupational-health Office-workers Work-environment Worker-health Workers

  More +
• Publisher:
  American Statistical Association
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Abstract or Summary ; Proceedings
• Place as Subject:
  Louisiana ; Ohio ; OSHA Region 5 ; OSHA Region 6
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSHEFS - Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations, and Field Studies
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20030474
• Citation:
  Joint Statistical Meetings, August 13-17, 2000, Indianapolis, Indiana. Alexandria, VA: American Statistical Association, 2000 Aug; :4026
• Contact Point Address:
  NIOSH, 4676 Columbia Parkway, M.S. R-19, Cincinnati, Ohio, 45226
• Email:
  wks1@cdc.gov
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2000
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  Joint Statistical Meetings, August 13-17, 2000, Indianapolis, Indiana
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:d65f75a76e21493764911533b0b9c26c547d3f8f90bfff0d36ba862fa457b6b300d884780366619869901af6bae8013ddac1058c0faad4215cfa1fb6ee51aad9
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/191068/cdc_191068_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 156.71 KB ]