Niza, I L; da Luz, I M; de Souza, M P and Broday, E E (2025) Hierarchical and two-step clustering to assess symptoms of sick building syndrome in office spaces in an educational building. Architectural Engineering and Design Management, 21(4), pp. 603-620. ISSN 1745-2007
Abstract
People spend a significant amount of time indoors, being exposed to situations that might lead to discomfort, illness and loss of productivity. This study addressed the symptoms reported by employees of office spaces within an educational building, focusing on sick building syndrome (SBS), a set of symptoms experienced by occupants of buildings without a known cause. Volunteers were asked to complete a questionnaire reporting their symptoms during the workday. After data collection, hierarchical and two-step clustering were applied to assess the symptoms reported. The main results found were: (I) around 43.06% of people reported at least one symptom of SBS; (II) two-step clustering analysis showed that the main predictive symptoms are blurred vision, eye irritation, exhaustion, drowsiness and weakness; (III) hierarchical clustering analysis observed a high probability of simultaneous symptoms such as exhaustion and drowsiness, nasal irritation or itching and runny nose. At the same time, cough and shortness of breath showed a lower probability; (IV) the dendrogram formed a group predominantly linked to respiratory symptoms and another related to throat and skin symptoms; (V) the application of cluster analysis has the potential to describe the patterns and groups of identified symptoms accurately. Additionally, the research presented several contributions, such as identifying the most severe symptoms requiring immediate mitigation actions and enabling decisions related to employees' health and well-being by implementing preventive measures to promote a healthier environment.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | cluster analysis; educational buildings; hierarchical clustering; office spaces; sbs; sick building syndrome; two-step clustering |
| Index terms: | cluster analysis, mitigation, questionnaire, sick building syndrome, educational building, volunteer, health and wellbeing, clustering, office space, productivity, discomfort, illness |
| Subjects: | data collection methods, mental health and wellbeing, data analysis and analytics, data science, management, health risk and incident analysis, environmental health, health conditions and diseases, practitioner, construction type, financial risk |
| Topics: | Sustainability, Health and Safety, Digital Applications, Construction Technology, Roles and Professions, Research Practice, Business Strategy, Cost Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCA |
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