Wood and Its Impact on Humans and Environment Quality in Health Care Facilities

Kotradyova, Veronika; Vavrinsky, Erik; Kalinakova, Barbora; Petro, Dominik; Jansakova, Katarina; Boles, Martin; Svobodova, Helena

doi:10.3390/ijerph16183496

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Wood and Its Impact on Humans and Environment Quality in Health Care Facilities

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Institute of Interior and Exhibition Design, BCDlab, Faculty of Architecture, Slovak University of Technology, Nam. Slobody 19, 81245 Bratislava, Slovakia

Institute of Electronics and Photonics, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, Slovak University of Technology, Ilkovicova 3, 81219 Bratislava, Slovakia

Institute of Medical Physics, Biophysics, Informatics and Telemedicine, Faculty of Medicine, Comenius University, Sasinkova 2, 81372 Bratislava, Slovakia

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Institute of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Faculty of Chemical and Food Technology, Slovak University of Technology, Radlinskeho 9, 81237 Bratislava, Slovakia

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FaceMedia, Jazdecka 6, 83103 Bratislava, Slovakia

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Institute of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Comenius University, Sasinkova 2, 81372 Bratislava, Slovakia

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Department of Simulation and Virtual Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine, Comenius University, Sasinkova 4, 81272 Bratislava, Slovakia

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16(18), 3496; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16183496

Received: 23 August 2019 / Revised: 12 September 2019 / Accepted: 14 September 2019 / Published: 19 September 2019

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Quality of Life: The Interplay between Human Behaviour, Technology and the Environment)

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Abstract

The paper presents the application of natural materials, especially wood, which are relevant for human well-being in built environments of health, social, and day care facilities. These properties were tested by a complex methodology in a case study in the wooden waiting room at National Oncology Institute in Bratislava. In this space, experimental tests of physiological responses were further executed on 50 volunteers moving in the waiting room for 20 min. In this article, the EEG (electroencephalograph) (four persons) and emotions from the faces of all our volunteers before entering and after a stay in a wooden waiting room were recorded. Specifically, the ECG (electrocardiograph), heart rate (HR), and respiration activity were measured by using our own designed ECG holter (40 persons), and also blood pressure and cortisol levels were observed. The usage of wooden materials verifies their regenerative and positive impact on the human nervous system, through the appealing aesthetics (color, texture, and structures), high contact comfort, pleasant smell, possibility to regulate air humidity, volatile organic compound emissions (VOC-emissions), and acoustic well-being in the space. View Full-Text

Keywords: natural materials; wood; environment design; hospitals; human physiology; face emotions

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MDPI and ACS Style

Kotradyova, V.; Vavrinsky, E.; Kalinakova, B.; Petro, D.; Jansakova, K.; Boles, M.; Svobodova, H. Wood and Its Impact on Humans and Environment Quality in Health Care Facilities. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16, 3496. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16183496

AMA Style

Kotradyova V, Vavrinsky E, Kalinakova B, Petro D, Jansakova K, Boles M, Svobodova H. Wood and Its Impact on Humans and Environment Quality in Health Care Facilities. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2019; 16(18):3496. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16183496

Chicago/Turabian Style

Kotradyova, Veronika, Erik Vavrinsky, Barbora Kalinakova, Dominik Petro, Katarina Jansakova, Martin Boles, and Helena Svobodova. 2019. "Wood and Its Impact on Humans and Environment Quality in Health Care Facilities" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 16, no. 18: 3496. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16183496

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