Sick Building Syndrome and its Relationship with Work Stress as a Psychosocial Risk: A Shopping Mall Example

Abstract

Recently, buildings, residences, plazas, shopping malls, skyscrapers and towers that have been rising all over the world have begun to form our living spaces as smart structures where private, social and business lives are carried out. The fact that these closed spaces threaten the health of people living and working in them and cause diseases, has led to these buildings being called "sick building syndrome (SBS)". Sick building syndrome results in the health of people who spend time and work in these buildings being affected both physically and psychologically. The aim of this study is to reveal the symptoms of sick building syndrome and its effects on stress, which is a psychosocial risk at workplace. A cross-sectional study conducted in two randomly selected shopping malls in Turkey involved 268 employees. Research findings indicate that employees suffer from symptoms like dry throat, runny nose, eye irritation, headaches, muscle-joint pain and fatigue. Additionally, it has been observed that these symptoms intensify during peak weekend traffic Moreover, the sick buildings phenomenon increases the stress levels of employees' due to the conditions associated with enclosed spaces.

Keywords: Sick Building Syndrome, Psycho-social risk, shopping mall, Symptoms

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1005730