Towards an integrated analysis of the indoor environmental factors and its effects on occupants

Abstract

Research has shown that staying indoors is not good for our health, even though the conditions seem to comply with current guidelines for indoor environmental quality (IEQ). The growing field of indoor health and comfort studies in schools, offices and homes, shows a discrepancy of current standards with end-users needs. In a previous review it was concluded that a more complex research model than the conventional ‘dose-response’ model is required to explain symptoms and complaints, preferences and needs, in order to prevent negative effects and to stimulate positive experiences. In this position paper, recent research on the further development of the previous introduced approach is presented along the identified needs, i.e. a model that is suitable for determining patterns of stressors and interactions, and takes account of dynamic behaviour over time per scenario; assessment methods that can identify other factors and stressors than the environmental parameters used in guidelines and analysis methods that can determine relations and interactions. The outcome is used to improve and detail the previous introduced approach.