TY - JOUR
T1 - A sex/age anomaly in thermal comfort observed in an office worker field study
T2 - A menopausal effect?
AU - Xiong, Jing
AU - Carter, Sarah
AU - Jay, Ollie
AU - Arens, Edward
AU - Zhang, Hui
AU - Deuble, Max
AU - de Dear, Richard
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. We express our appreciation to all the building occupants who responded to the questionnaires.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd
PY - 2022/1
Y1 - 2022/1
N2 - In a field study conducted in office settings in Sydney, Australia, background survey and right-here-right-now thermal comfort questionnaires were collected from a sample of office workers. Indoor environmental observations, including air temperature, mean radiant temperature, air velocity, and relative humidity, were also recorded and matched with each questionnaire according to the time and location. During exploratory data analyses, we observed that female subjects aged over 40 and 50 or younger registered significantly warmer sensations than other subjects, male and female, from other age ranges. To further explore this phenomenon, the sample of building occupants was classified into two groups—women of perimenopausal age (over 40 and 50 or younger) while the remaining respondents served as a reference group for comparison. Women in the perimenopausal age range demonstrated an increased perception of warmth (p < 0.01) and expressed thermal dissatisfaction more frequently (p < 0.01) than the reference group respondents who were exposed to the same indoor environmental conditions. Furthermore, women of perimenopausal age also expressed preference for cooler thermal environments, that is, lower air temperature (p < 0.01) and greater air movement (p<0.01) than the reference group, and their thermal neutrality (ie, the room temperature corresponding to a neutral thermal sensation) was approximately 2°C cooler than that of the reference group (20.7°C vs 22.4°C). A potential physiological explanation for the distinct thermal perception of women aged over 40 and 50 or younger observed in this study could stem from menopausal symptoms—the presence of hot flushes and dysregulation of the thermoregulatory system.
AB - In a field study conducted in office settings in Sydney, Australia, background survey and right-here-right-now thermal comfort questionnaires were collected from a sample of office workers. Indoor environmental observations, including air temperature, mean radiant temperature, air velocity, and relative humidity, were also recorded and matched with each questionnaire according to the time and location. During exploratory data analyses, we observed that female subjects aged over 40 and 50 or younger registered significantly warmer sensations than other subjects, male and female, from other age ranges. To further explore this phenomenon, the sample of building occupants was classified into two groups—women of perimenopausal age (over 40 and 50 or younger) while the remaining respondents served as a reference group for comparison. Women in the perimenopausal age range demonstrated an increased perception of warmth (p < 0.01) and expressed thermal dissatisfaction more frequently (p < 0.01) than the reference group respondents who were exposed to the same indoor environmental conditions. Furthermore, women of perimenopausal age also expressed preference for cooler thermal environments, that is, lower air temperature (p < 0.01) and greater air movement (p<0.01) than the reference group, and their thermal neutrality (ie, the room temperature corresponding to a neutral thermal sensation) was approximately 2°C cooler than that of the reference group (20.7°C vs 22.4°C). A potential physiological explanation for the distinct thermal perception of women aged over 40 and 50 or younger observed in this study could stem from menopausal symptoms—the presence of hot flushes and dysregulation of the thermoregulatory system.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85113148601&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/ina.12926
DO - 10.1111/ina.12926
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85113148601
VL - 32
SP - 1
EP - 11
JO - Indoor Air: international journal of indoor air quality and climate
JF - Indoor Air: international journal of indoor air quality and climate
SN - 0905-6947
IS - 1
M1 - e12926
ER -