TY - JOUR
T1 - Profiling office workers based on their self-reported preferences of indoor environmental quality and psychosocial comfort at their workplace during COVID-19
AU - Ortiz, Marco A.
AU - Bluyssen, P.M.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a large number of office workers were required to conduct their work from home. Little is known about the indoor environmental quality (IEQ) preferences and psychosocial comfort preferences of staff working from home. Therefore this study aimed to cluster office workers working at home based on their self-reported preferences for IEQ and psychosocial comfort at their most used workspace and to identify these preferences and needs of workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. A questionnaire was administered to employees of ten offices in the Netherlands, and the 502 respondents were clustered with two models by using TwoStep cluster analysis. The first model was based on variables related to IEQ preferences, while the second was to psychosocial comfort preferences. The analysis revealed four IEQ clusters and six psychosocial comfort clusters. Comparison of these results with other similar studies proposed that the prevalence of anxiety, depression, migraine, and rhinitis, increased for this population during the work-from-home period of the pandemic. Further results suggest that both IEQ and psychosocial comfort preferences are situation- and gender-dependent.
AB - Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a large number of office workers were required to conduct their work from home. Little is known about the indoor environmental quality (IEQ) preferences and psychosocial comfort preferences of staff working from home. Therefore this study aimed to cluster office workers working at home based on their self-reported preferences for IEQ and psychosocial comfort at their most used workspace and to identify these preferences and needs of workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. A questionnaire was administered to employees of ten offices in the Netherlands, and the 502 respondents were clustered with two models by using TwoStep cluster analysis. The first model was based on variables related to IEQ preferences, while the second was to psychosocial comfort preferences. The analysis revealed four IEQ clusters and six psychosocial comfort clusters. Comparison of these results with other similar studies proposed that the prevalence of anxiety, depression, migraine, and rhinitis, increased for this population during the work-from-home period of the pandemic. Further results suggest that both IEQ and psychosocial comfort preferences are situation- and gender-dependent.
KW - COVID-19
KW - Health and comfort
KW - Preferences and needs
KW - Workplace
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85122261140&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.buildenv.2021.108742
DO - 10.1016/j.buildenv.2021.108742
M3 - Article
SN - 0360-1323
VL - 211
JO - Building and Environment
JF - Building and Environment
M1 - 108742
ER -