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Patient’s thermal comfort assessment of a government hospital during the warm-humid season

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Kumar Biswajit DebnathORCiD

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This is the authors' accepted manuscript of a conference proceedings (inc. abstract) that has been published in its final definitive form by PLEA (Passive and Low Energy Architecture), 2022.

For re-use rights please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.


Abstract

Thermal comfort is vital in Bangladesh's fast-growing built environment, especially during the warm-humid season. In a developing country such as Bangladesh, the health sector often overlooks the patient's well-being due to financial and organizational constraints. Literature suggests that there has been a substantial research gap in the thermal comfort assessment of government hospitals in Bangladesh. This study aimed to understand the patient's perception of indoor thermal conditions in mechanically ventilated hospital wards and identify their comfort temperatures in the studied context. The data were collected from a questionnaire survey of 200 adult patients (aged 20-40 years) of medicine and surgery wards during the warm-humid season (June-September) along with objective measurements of their thermal environments in a case study hospital. Although all the objective measurements were above ASHRAE recommendations, 45.25% of patients found their thermal environment acceptable due to acclimatization and adaptive behaviour. Through a linear regression analysis, the patients' comfort range was between 28.2°C and 31.8°C, while the comfort temperatures from linear regression and Griffiths method were 30°C and 29.83°C, respectively. However, the 'preferred' temperature was 29.65°C, which is slightly lower than the comfort temperature, proved the thermal adversities during the warm-humid periods are quite well tolerated by the patients due to adaptation and acclimatization.


Publication metadata

Author(s): Anam SI, Ahmed ZN, Debnath KB

Publication type: Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstract)

Publication status: Published

Conference Name: 36th PLEA Conference 2022: Sustainable Architecture and Urban Design

Year of Conference: 2022

Online publication date: 23/11/2022

Acceptance date: 27/03/2022

Date deposited: 09/12/2022

Publisher: PLEA (Passive and Low Energy Architecture)

URL: https://plea2022.org/

ePrints DOI: 10.57711/m5kq-h549


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