A Study on the Emotional and Visual Influence of the CICU Luminous Environment on Patients and Nurses

Abstract

Cardiovascular diseases loom large in China and studies indicate an appropriate luminous environment helps to boost the emotions of cardiovascular patients. This study discusses emotional and visual influences of the luminous environment of Cardiac Intensive Care Units (CICU) on both patients and medical care personnel. We draw the following conclusions: 1) Illuminance level, color temperature, and lighting method all affect patient and nurse satisfaction. 2) Patients prefer low color temperature, while nurses prefer a higher one; however, factors such as illuminance, lighting method, and luminance distribution outweigh the influence of color temperature. 3) The major factors affecting patient satisfaction consist of the emotional and the visual factors in inverse correlation. 4) Nurse satisfaction correlates to the visual factor score. 5) The visual factor scores of subjects (patients and nurses) correlate positively to illuminance levels and average luminance. 6) In a specific range, the visual factor scores of subjects correlate positively to luminance contrast and UGR. 7) In a scenario characterized by an illuminance of 200 lx or an average luminance of 60 cd/m2, the trends of patients′ emotional factor and visual factor intersect, where the emotional factor peaks. 8) For the patients and nurses in CICU, their lighting demands varied due to different purposes. Patients needed to rest while nurses needed to see things clearly at work. In our opinion, the CICU Luminous Environment should be adapted to the needs of different major users (patients or nurses) with controlled parameters to achieve ideal performance. However, when illuminance and average luminance grow beyond the peak, the emotional factor will decrease.