User’s Perception of Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) in Tall Office Buildings as the Cause of Symptoms of Sick Building Syndrome

Abstract

The user’s assessment or perception of indoor air quality (IAQ) refers to an individual’s subjective assessment or perception of the quality of the air they breathe inside a particular building or space. This assessment or perception is very individual and can vary from one individual to another. This study aims to determine the IAQ felt by users of the Rectorate Building, State University of Malang, and its effect on Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) symptoms. This research is included in the quantitative research with the study population being all employees at the building, which has 215 people. The data collection technique in this study used the MM040NA questionnaire and the data analysis technique used was binary logistic regression analysis with the help of the IBM SPSS Statistics with crosstabs test. The results of this study indicate that all independent variables have no significant relationship with SBS symptoms experienced by respondents and all independent variables have a very weak correlation. In addition, from 80 respondents, 27 people (33.75%) experienced SBS and 53 people (66.25%) did not experience SBS. This shows that there is a SBS phenomenon in the building. The significance value for all independent variables is greater than the significance level value (>0.05). Furthermore, based on the test criteria, it is concluded that the variable airflow, high temperature, temperature change, low temperature, stale air, dry air, odor, air electrostatics, cigarette smoke, sound level, lighting, and air pollution have approximate significance values greater than 0.05 (null hypothesis was failed to be rejected). It is concluded that those variables have no significant relationship to the dependent variable (the SBS symptoms) experienced by the respondents.