[Epidemiologic study on the prevalence of the sick house syndrome in Japan]

Sick house syndrome (SHS; sick house syndrome) presents healthy damage owing to the indoor environment of a building. Although SHS is recognized socially, there is no medical definition and its illness concept is also ambiguous. This time, large-scale epidemiology investigation about SHS of our country was conducted.

The investigation paper in the "epidemiological research on SHS" group of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare was used. The reply of 8737 adults and 9387 children was obtained.

By the definition of a disease, prevalence of SHS was 8.5 to 22.1% at the adult and 5.6-19.8% in the child. Cause environmental substances were "a shampoo, makeup and a perfume", "the smell of a wall or the building materials of a floor", and "paint". There was no significant difference in SHS development of symptoms in construction years and the situation of extension and alteration of a dwelling. As a feature of a life style, symptoms developed in the strong group of stress and sensitive to a smell developed mostly. CONSIDERATION: Prevalence differed greatly by how SHS is defined. In order to diagnose truer SHS, we think that the prudent definition based also on the international standard is required.