Sick building symptoms in office workers: a follow-up study before and one year after changing buildings

Influences of physical and psychosocial work environments and personal factors on sick building syndrome symptoms were investigated in 167 clerical workers before and one year after moving from a naturally ventilated building to an artificially ventilated building. Female gender and work on visual display units were independently associated with most symptoms in the baseline survey and with the incident (new) symptoms in the follow-up survey. After changing buildings, the prevalences of eye, skin and fatigue symptoms increased significantly. Cold and discomfort due to stuffiness were independently associated with incident eye and respiratory symptoms. Reported domestic workloads were greater for women, but did not account for any gender differences in symptom prevalence.