Thermal comfort of patients: Objective and subjective measurements in patient rooms of a Belgian healthcare facility

Abstract

In healthcare facilities, the prediction of mean thermal comfort perception of patients and staff is necessary to formulate requirements for the architectural and building systems design and control, and for establishing guidelines for the use of clothing and bedding systems. In this study thermal comfort of patients is evaluated by comparing objective (environmental and personal) parameters and subjective measurements (questionnaires) of thermal comfort for different groups of patients, according to the ward they are occupied in. The study involved 99 patients of maternity, oncology, neurology, gastro-enterology, abdominal surgery and thoraco-vascular surgery wards. T tests reveal no significant difference between Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) obtained from objective measurements and Actual Mean Vote (AMV) for all the different wards except for neurology. Binomial tests show that the difference between the predicted percentage of dissatisfied (PPD) obtained by application of the PPD-formula in ISO 7730 as function of Actual Mean Vote and PPD obtained from personal acceptability votes is not significant on a 5% level for all wards. This means that PMV and PPD indices may be used to adequately predict mean thermal responses for these wards except for neurology.