Correlation between health discomforts and temperature steps in winter of China

Publication date: March 2017
Source:Building and Environment, Volume 114
Author(s): Jing Xiong, Zhiwei Lian, Huibo Zhang, Hiroshi Yoshino
The investigation was carried out in typical wintertime (January 2016) of China. Relationships between health discomforts, which includes physiological effects to the nervous system, digestive system, respiratory system, skin and mucous membranes, and temperature steps were analyzed with the adjustment of subjects' anthropometric information. The Odds Ratio (OR) was applied to evaluate the possibility of suffering from certain kinds of discomforts for different groups of people in comparison to the control group. If the OR is higher than 1.0 (P < 0.05), it indicates that the focused group is more vulnerable than the control group. Results show that people in cold winter regions suffered higher risk (OR: 1.335-2.044) of several discomforts than those in warm winter areas. For hot summer and cold winter region, air-conditioning usage intensified discomforts (OR >1) since the rates of 8 kinds of discomforts for people who use air-conditioning both at their offices and homes were significant higher than the control group (people use air-conditioning neither in their homes nor offices) with OR ranging from 1.455 to 2.276. Adaptability also has significant impact on human discomforts, showing as people whose residential period are less than 10 years have higher relative risks in several discomforts than people living here for more than 10 years (OR varying from 1.342 to 1.954), especially the psychological and nervous system effects. Body mass index, gender and age are also remarkable factors associated with human discomforts in winter.