Indoor environmental quality studies

Indoor environmental quality (IEQ) has a direct effect on the comfort, health and wellbeing of the people occupying the space due to their exposure to temperature, humidity, pollutants and airborne pathogens (Jin et al. 2020b). For people with dementia, however, the indoor environment is particularly important because vulnerable people may spend up to 100% of their time indoors ( Torfs et al. 2008 ), compared to 90% for healthy adults, and so their health and wellbeing are greatly affected by IEQ parameters (Jin et al. 2020a). IEQ is characterised by thermal comfort, indoor air quality (IAQ), acoustic comfort and visual comfort (Valderrama-Ulloa et al. 2020). The focus of this chapter is illustrated in Figure 8.1 and concentrates primarily on thermal comfort parameters and CO2 concentration, which is an airborne pollutant that can be taken as a proxy for ventilation effectiveness. The importance of ensuring an appropriate internal environment for people with dementia cannot be understated, and the significant impact of sub-optimal indoor environments is potentially significant. This chapter seeks to explain the linkage between wellbeing of people with dementia and the environmental physics underlying the creation and maintenance of an appropriate level of IEQ.