Certain personal and environmental factors as predictors of thermal sensation perceived by a population of students in a university setting from Timisoara, Romania: a case study

BACKGROUND The aim of the performed study was to investigate personal and environmental factors as predictors of thermal sensation perceived by a population of students in a university setting. METHODS The study consisted of two samples, a winter sample (154 students: 44.2% males and 55.8% females, aged 19-30 years) and a spring sample (147 students: 52.4% males and 47.6% females, aged 19-30 years), randomly selected from the same population of students. The method was an observational inquiry (case study) with a standardized questionnaire (11 items, 3 items for thermal sensation assessing through 3 scales with 3, 5 and 7 steps, alpha Cronbach's index 0.854) applied and establishing 3 microclimate factors (air temperature, relative humidity and wind velocity), with calculation of normal effective temperature. The survey was performed over four successive days, during two seasons (winter-February and spring-May). RESULTS The performed study demonstrated a tendency of students to perceive the comfortably cold more frequently than comfortably warm throughout the 4 days of the survey during the winter, except Monday. Thermal sensation of discomfort was more frequently perceived as warm than cold throughout the spring time of the survey and winter, except Tuesday. Predictors of thermal sensation perceived by students in the amphitheatre were as follows: nationality (-2loglikelihood change or chi square = 42.12, Sig. 0.000), relative humidity (chi square = 10.65, Sig. 0.005) and gender during the winter, and wind velocity (change in -2loglikelihood = 11.96, Sig. 0.001) and nationality during the spring. CONCLUSIONS Certain personal and environmental factors were suggested as predictors for thermal sensation perceived by a population of students in a study setting.