Certain personal and environmental factors as predictors of thermal sensation perceived by a population of students in a university setting from Timisoara, Romania: a case study

Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine, Jun 2017

Background The aim of the performed study was to investigate personal and environmental factors as predictors of thermal sensation perceived by a population of students in a university setting. Methods The study consisted of two samples, a winter sample (154 students: 44.2% males and 55.8% females, aged 19–30 years) and a spring sample (147 students: 52.4% males and 47.6% females, aged 19–30 years), randomly selected from the same population of students. The method was an observational inquiry (case study) with a standardized questionnaire (11 items, 3 items for thermal sensation assessing through 3 scales with 3, 5 and 7 steps, alpha Cronbach’s index 0.854) applied and establishing 3 microclimate factors (air temperature, relative humidity and wind velocity), with calculation of normal effective temperature. The survey was performed over four successive days, during two seasons (winter—February and spring—May). Results The performed study demonstrated a tendency of students to perceive the comfortably cold more frequently than comfortably warm throughout the 4 days of the survey during the winter, except Monday. Thermal sensation of discomfort was more frequently perceived as warm than cold throughout the spring time of the survey and winter, except Tuesday. Predictors of thermal sensation perceived by students in the amphitheatre were as follows: nationality (−2loglikelihood change or chi square = 42.12, Sig. 0.000), relative humidity (chi square = 10.65, Sig. 0.005) and gender during the winter, and wind velocity (change in −2loglikelihood = 11.96, Sig. 0.001) and nationality during the spring. Conclusions Certain personal and environmental factors were suggested as predictors for thermal sensation perceived by a population of students in a study setting.

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Certain personal and environmental factors as predictors of thermal sensation perceived by a population of students in a university setting from Timisoara, Romania: a case study

Petrescu Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine Certain personal and environmental factors as predictors of thermal sensation perceived by a population of students in a university setting from Timisoara, Romania: a case study Cristina I. Petrescu 0 1 0 Sabinei 3A/18 , 300424 Timisoara , Romania 1 Department of Hygiene, “Victor Babes” University of Medicine and Pharmacy Timisoara , Victor Babes 16, 300226 Timisoara , Romania Background: The aim of the performed study was to investigate personal and environmental factors as predictors of thermal sensation perceived by a population of students in a university setting. Methods: The study consisted of two samples, a winter sample (154 students: 44.2% males and 55.8% females, aged 19-30 years) and a spring sample (147 students: 52.4% males and 47.6% females, aged 19-30 years), randomly selected from the same population of students. The method was an observational inquiry (case study) with a standardized questionnaire (11 items, 3 items for thermal sensation assessing through 3 scales with 3, 5 and 7 steps, alpha Cronbach's index 0.854) applied and establishing 3 microclimate factors (air temperature, relative humidity and wind velocity), with calculation of normal effective temperature. The survey was performed over four successive days, during two seasons (winter-February and spring-May). Results: The performed study demonstrated a tendency of students to perceive the comfortably cold more frequently than comfortably warm throughout the 4 days of the survey during the winter, except Monday. Thermal sensation of discomfort was more frequently perceived as warm than cold throughout the spring time of the survey and winter, except Tuesday. Predictors of thermal sensation perceived by students in the amphitheatre were as follows: nationality (−2loglikelihood change or chi square = 42.12, Sig. 0.000), relative humidity (chi square = 10.65, Sig. 0.005) and gender during the winter, and wind velocity (change in −2loglikelihood = 11.96, Sig. 0.001) and nationality during the spring. Conclusions: Certain personal and environmental factors were suggested as predictors for thermal sensation perceived by a population of students in a study setting. Thermal sensation; Students; University; Personal and environmental factors; Case study - Background Environmental and individual factors interact and determine a great variation of thermal sensation perception. Recent research performed in the area indicated how environmental factors intervene in heat exchange between whole body [1] and environment through physiological equivalent temperature (PET) [2], predicted mean vote (PMV) [3], actual sensation vote (ASV) and Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) [4, 5] estimation of thermal sensation in investigated people. Normal effective temperature (NET) calculation was improved by Li and Chen, in 2000 [5, 6]. A gap of knowledge is registered in eastern European countries regarding microclimate factors related to thermal sensation perceived in study settings with classical architecture combined with modern means (PVC windows) to save energy. Climate changes worsen the existent situation through the great variation of © The Author(s). 2017 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. meteorological conditions and through exhaustion of man’s mechanisms of adaptation. Assessment of the thermal sensation perceived by students in a study setting and of the factors (environmental and personal) which could modify it, offers the possibility to improve microclimate conditions and to assure thermal comfort of the students. The aim of the conducted study was to investigate personal and environmental factors as predictors of thermal sensation perceived by a population of students in a university setting, classically built and naturally ventilated, from Timisoara, in two seasons, winter and spring. Methods The study was performed on two different samples of Romanian and English language students selected through random sampling: a winter sample of 154 students (44.2% males and 55.8% females, aged 19–30 years) and a spring sample of 147 students (52.4% males and 47.6% females, aged 19–30 years) from the same population of students (second year of study). The informed consent of each student to participate in the study was asked for and obtained. The study setting was an amphitheatre (140-m2 plane surface, 14-m length and 10-m width, 6-m height, 143 p (...truncated)


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Cristina I. Petrescu. Certain personal and environmental factors as predictors of thermal sensation perceived by a population of students in a university setting from Timisoara, Romania: a case study, Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine, 2017, pp. 56, Volume 22, Issue 1, DOI: 10.1186/s12199-017-0664-1