Associations among sick building syndrome, psychosocial factors, and personality traits

A mailed questionnaire assessed personality traits of a cohort of 194 subjects followed from 1988 to 1998 measured by the Karolinska Scales of Personality and Sense of Coherence Scale, medical symptoms, and 3 VAS scales on Perceived Psychosocial Work Satisfaction. Subjects initially worked in 19 Swedish buildings with indoor environmental problems. There was a relatively high correlation between SOC scores and KSP scale scores (R2=.54 in men and .55 in women), and there was a sex-KSP interaction on the association between the two sets of scores. An increase of symptom score (SC difference) during the follow-up period was associated with higher psychic anxiety (p<.01 for both men and women), higher socialization (p<.01 for men) and lower inhibition of aggression (p<.05 for men), in stepwise multiple linear regression models. Moreover, the perceived satisfaction scores were associated with personality scale scores, and subjects with a higher sense of coherence reported higher work satisfaction (p<.01). In conclusion, personality aspects seem to play an important role for reporting medical symptoms, work satisfaction, work stress, and climate of cooperation at work, but different personality aspects could be important in men and women.