Indoor Air Quality associations with sick building syndrome: An application of decision tree technology

Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) affects the efficiency of staff by a series of non-specific symptoms in workplaces and also causes economic consequences annually due increasing the absenteeism of staff. Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) has been widely studied to comprehensively characterize associations between the workplace environment and Sick Building Syndrome (SBS), but very few studies have used predictive mathematical models for identifying the complex joint effects. In this study, 154 office workers were followed up to estimate the prevalence of Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) in the office buildings using a Decision Tree (DT) model to classify the most important parameters between the sociodemographic data, health and lifestyle habits, work-related information, ergonomic and psychological factors, emission of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), and bacterial contamination variables. The results revealed that the prevalence of Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) symptoms was reported to be 74.4% and 68.5% in women and men, respectively. Moreover, a significant relationship was found between the prevalence of Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) and current smoking, duration of work, and especially psychological factors. The highest concentrations of Volatile Organic Compounds were related to the Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene and Xylene (BTEX), and the species Staph. Aureus, Staph. epidermidis, and Klebsiella pneumoniae were the most frequent bacterial species. The important variables proposed by Decision Tree (DT) were job satisfaction, ergonomic parameters, microbiological pollutants, and the concentration of 1-methyl-4-(1-methylethyl) benzene. Therefore, due to the high prevalence rate of Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) in office workers, using corrective and control measures in Long-term is essential.

Automated summary

The study found a high prevalence rate of Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) symptoms among office workers, mostly associated with smoking, long working hours, and psychological factors. Volatile Organic Compounds and bacterial contamination were identified as the main influencing factors.