Designing and Developing a Questionnaire to Evaluate the Lighting of the Working Environments of Hospitals

Background & objectives: 

Lighting is one of the most critical environmental factors affecting visual comfort, sleep quality, occupational accidents, and musculoskeletal disorders. This study aimed to design and develop a tool for the subjective assessment of lighting in hospital workplaces.

 This study was conducted on 180 hospital personnel in Iran. First, the existing questionnaires were reviewed, and questions were collected as a questionnaire. This questionnaire consisted of 7 main sections and a section entitled "Suggestions for improving lighting". The validity of the questionnaire was determined based on expert comments and the CVI index. Its reliability was assessed by completing the questionnaire for hospital staff. According to the North American Society of Lighting Engineers (IESNA) standard, illumination was evaluated and compared with the questionnaire results.

 The Cronbach's alpha coefficient and CVI value of the questionnaire were estimated to be 0.901 and 0.97, respectively. The minimum and maximum local illuminances were 55.67 and 980.80 lux, respectively. There was a significant positive relationship between the mean score of the questionnaire and the illuminances in the workstations (r =0.716, P<0.001). 72.8% of the workstations had good lighting, and the results of the questionnaire evaluation in these stations showed good and excellent lighting conditions.

 The designed subjective lighting assessment questionnaire had good validity and reliability. This tool is recommended to assess and improve the lighting of the hospital working environment due to its simplicity, the inclusion of different aspects of lighting comfort, and solutions to improve the lighting system.