The effect of indoor air quality (IAQ) towards occupants’ psychological performance in office buildings

Abstract

Indoor air quality (IAQ) in a building is a very important element to ensure the health and comfort level of the building occupants. This is because work productivity may be interrupted due to the polluted environmental condition and bad indoor air quality. Both factors may lead to bad health and physical condition and consequently to bad work performance. The study presents the understanding and knowledge of how indoor air quality (IAQ) affects psychological performance and health impact to the occupants in government high rise office buildings in Malaysia. Four high-rise government office buildings located in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor were selected as the case studies. Questionnaire forms were distributed among the building occupants to get their feedback regarding their satisfaction with the buildings’ IAQ performance. All data collected were analysed using SPSS statistical software and based on the data analysed, building occupants’ satisfaction level are identified. Finding shows that in the current situation, the majority of respondents are not satisfied with their office current indoor air quality. This condition is believed to be one of the contributing factors affecting occupants’ work productivity and stress level. Nevertheless, this research managed to provide better understanding and valuable information on how indoor air quality affect psychological performance and health condition of the occupants in office buildings. Recommendations are made to improve the indoor air quality performance in order to provide a comfortable working environment to the workers.