Institute for Environmental Design and Engineering, The Bartlett, UCL, London, UK.
Institute for Global Health, UCL, London, UK.
Indoor Air. 2022 Feb;32(2):e13004. doi: 10.1111/ina.13004.
Impairment in mental functions attributed to the effects of indoor air quality and thermal conditions has received considerable attention in the past decade, particularly for educational buildings where students' cognitive performance is essential to foster learning. This study explores the combined effects of indoor temperatures and CO levels as markers for ventilation rates on cognitive performance among female students (16-23 years old) in Saudi Arabia. The longitudinal experiments involved nine conditions combining three CO concentration levels (achieved via changes in ventilation) and three temperature levels involving 499 participants, all exposed to the nine conditions. The study implemented a computer-based cognitive performance battery with "9Button" keyboards. Univariable and multivariable multilevel regression models explored the association of indoor temperature and CO levels (as markers for ventilation rates) with cognitive performance after adjusting for potential confounders. Potential benefits were found on speed and accuracy of tasks of cognitive performance when indoor temperature was set between 20 and 23ºC and at CO levels of 600 ppm compared to higher temperatures and poorer ventilation rates and that both ventilation and thermal environmental control are important and need to be improved for achieving optimum learning conditions. Nevertheless, the results are relevant for short-term exposures lasting no more than 2 h.
在过去十年中，室内空气质量和热条件对精神功能的影响引起了相当大的关注，特别是对于教育建筑，学生的认知表现对于促进学习至关重要。本研究探讨了室内温度和 CO 浓度作为通风率标志物对沙特阿拉伯女学生（16-23 岁）认知表现的综合影响。该纵向实验涉及 9 种条件，结合了 3 种 CO 浓度水平（通过通风变化实现）和 3 种温度水平，涉及 499 名参与者，所有参与者均暴露于 9 种条件下。该研究采用基于计算机的认知表现电池和“9 键”键盘。单变量和多变量多层次回归模型在调整潜在混杂因素后，探讨了室内温度和 CO 浓度（作为通风率标志物）与认知表现之间的关联。与较高的温度和较差的通风率相比，当室内温度设置在 20 到 23°C 之间且 CO 浓度为 600 ppm 时，发现认知表现的速度和准确性方面有潜在的益处，并且通风和热环境控制都很重要，需要加以改进以实现最佳学习条件。然而，这些结果与持续时间不超过 2 小时的短期暴露有关。
