It is critical to understand the facility managing system and the actual condition of indoor environment in order to improve quality of life such as health and comfort, and to prevent infectious diseases in care welfare facilities for the elderly. Although the related facilities are in high demand, the actual situation of indoor environment has not been clear since there have not been a regulation and control law at all. Moreover, there are many residents who need a high degree of nursing care in those facilities and inevitably odours arisen out of excretion help and human body have been a persistent problem.
The mid and long term goal of our research is to suggest the proper planning and operational management to improve the indoor air environment in those facilities. The field surveys and the questionnaire on special nursing homes all over the country have been conducted to clarify the actual condition and the maintenance of indoor environment such as temperature, humidity, air quality and ventilation situation.
In this study to clarify the odour environment and problems, the questionnaire items related to the odour environment were extracted and analyzed statistically.
The followings were reported in this article.
1) Questionnaire results on odour perceptions and measures for odour control
2) Bivariate analysis between odour perceptions and facility environmental / behavioral factors
3) Elucidation of influential factors on odour environment by multivariate analysis
As a result, it was obvious that the feces and body odour perceived at rooms and corridors were the major problem. Although a large majority of respondents reported the discomfort come from the feces odour, most of replies to acceptability were on neutral and acceptable side.
The facilities taking a measure for odour were likely to declare a higher degree of discomfort. It was reasonable, however, to interpret that the odour measures such as ventilation, fragrance and deodorant did not work as factors increasing the degree of discomfort, but rather that those were desired in the facilities with poor odour environment. The same explanation could also be made for odour intensity.
The bivariate analysis derived 19 variables as significant effect factors for hedonic tone, 18 variables for odour intensity and 11 variables for acceptability. Furthermore, the multivariate analysis derived the four factors of nursing care type, odorous bedroom, feces odour and ventilation by fan as the decisive candidates for perceived air quality. Conclusively feces odour and odorous bedroom were defined as the most decisive explanatory variables that could simultaneously explain all three objective variables of odour perceptions.
To control the odour environment indoor can lead to not only improving the working environment for staffs but also reducing the health risk of residents since it is also closely related to ventilation and general indoor air quality.
