Risk Factors and Prevalent of Sick Building Syndrome among Back-office Workers in a Thai University Hospital

Objective: To investigate risk factors and prevalent of sick building syndrome (SBS) among backoffice workers in a Thai university hospital.Methodology: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 165 back-office workers who always had been working in their office rooms not less than 3 months. Two anonymous self-administrated questionnaires collected data. Ten parameters of Indoor air quality were measured by air sampling. Multiple logistic regression was used to identify risk factors associated with SBS. Result: The prevalence of SBS symptoms was 80% sample, followed by 68.5% with less specific symptoms and 41.8% suffering from poor concentration, with 40.6% experiencing similar prevalence in both groups of irritated, dry or watering eyes, and irritated, runny or blocked nose dry, and 26.7% sore throat. The result of the model shows that neuroticism, visual display terminal used, and allergy history were risk factors related to SBS (p-value <0.05). Conclusion: Neuroticism, allergy history, and visual display terminal used were risk factors of SBS. These findings suggest that hospital administrators should be aware of neuroticism worker, allergic history, and visual display terminals used to prevent SBS symptoms among back-office worker who may leave their jobs due to aggravated symptoms and decreased productivity