A review of research on the impact of the classroom physical environment on schoolchildren's health

Abstract

Students spend more than 70% of their time in the classroom, and the quality of the classroom environment has an important impact on the physical and mental health of students in the growing stage. Drawing on Scopus, China National Knowledge Infrastructure databases, this paper sorts and summarizes 173 research articles on the impact of the classroom environment on the physical and mental health of schoolchildren in the past 20 years. Based on the aspects of acoustic, light, thermal, and air quality, nine key indicators and their impact on classroom indoor environments and thus student health are identified (background noise level, reverberation time, useful daylight illuminance, indoor air temperature, relative humidity and air velocity, ventilation rate, CO2 and PM2.5 concentrations). Corresponding classroom optimization design methods and potential improvements are proposed. Compared with related studies of adults, it is found that adolescents are suitable for cooler indoor temperatures, while their sensitivity to daylight illuminance, noise, and PM2.5 concentrations is higher than that of adults.