Relationship between indoor air quality and sick building syndrome among students in two different laboratory building at UiTM / Nur Amalina Mohamad

Introduction: Different laboratory characteristics will have different indoor air quality (IAQ) and will cause health problem such as sick building syndrome (SSS). Methodology: A cross- sectional comparative study design was used in this study to asses on indoor air quality in two different campus building and also conduct the survey of the sick building syndrome symptoms among the university students there. This study involved 192 students consists of 100 students from Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) and 92 from Faculty of Applied Sciences (FAS). The students were interviewed by using Air Quality and Work Symptoms Survey, NIOSH (National Institute Occupational Safety and Health) Indoor Environmental Quality Survey (1991 ). IAQ was monitored by using EVM 7 series and follow the guideline of Industry Code of Practice Indoor Air Quality Guideline 2010, DOSH, Malaysia. Results: Air flow rate was significantly higher at FAS building compare to FHS building due to use of individual unit of HVAC system at mean 0.04 and 0.34 m/s respectively. There was significantly higher prevalence of SSS among old new building and new building (X2= 21.9, p<0.001). Mann Whitney test showed there were significantly higher indoor air pollutants in the old building compared to new building: for CO (z=-5. 713, p<0.001 ), TVOC (z=-2.168, p=0.03), PM2.5 (z=-5.250, p= p<0.001 ). lndependent-t test showed there were significantly higher of relative humidity (t=1.402, p=0.022) and CO2 (t=0.392, p=0.031) at FAS building compared to FHS building. Result from simple linear regression showed there was a significant linear relationship between the level of indoor air quality and indoor air pollutants and prevalence of SSS for CO² (b= -0.001, 95% Cl=-0.003,0.000 and p=0.031) and Relative Humidity (b= -0.078, 95% Cl=- 1.264,0.583 and p=0.438) at FAS building. Conclusion: This study suggested that increasing indoor air pollutants, temperature and humidity may influence the occurrence of SSS among students. A further study is suggested to identify the risk of exposure to IAQ level and relationship with SSS.