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ABSTRACT
People spend a significant amount of time indoors, being exposed to situations that might lead to discomfort, illness and loss of productivity. This study addressed the symptoms reported by employees of office spaces within an educational building, focusing on sick building syndrome (SBS), a set of symptoms experienced by occupants of buildings without a known cause. Volunteers were asked to complete a questionnaire reporting their symptoms during the workday. After data collection, hierarchical and two-step clustering were applied to assess the symptoms reported. The main results found were: (I) around 43.06% of people reported at least one symptom of SBS; (II) two-step clustering analysis showed that the main predictive symptoms are blurred vision, eye irritation, exhaustion, drowsiness and weakness; (III) hierarchical clustering analysis observed a high probability of simultaneous symptoms such as exhaustion and drowsiness, nasal irritation or itching and runny nose. At the same time, cough and shortness of breath showed a lower probability; (IV) the dendrogram formed a group predominantly linked to respiratory symptoms and another related to throat and skin symptoms; (V) the application of cluster analysis has the potential to describe the patterns and groups of identified symptoms accurately. Additionally, the research presented several contributions, such as identifying the most severe symptoms requiring immediate mitigation actions and enabling decisions related to employees’ health and well-being by implementing preventive measures to promote a healthier environment.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).