The effects of a 'sick building' on neuropsychological functioning

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to investigate systematically a suggested decline in neuropsychological functioning among workers of Camp Hill Medical Centre (CHMC). Specifically, it was to determine whether or not CHMC staff volunteers who had reported Sick Building Illness (SBI) related health complaints would perform more poorly on psychometric testing than would a control group. The control group was obtained from a rural hospital which had natural ventilation (openable windows) and subjects who had no related health complaints. Each group containing 20 volunteer participants (18 females and 2 males) were administered a battery of neuropsychological tests. Mean trends suggested poorer overall performance by the exposed groups; and poorer performance by the previously exposed CHMC group compared to the recently exposed CHMC group. Both CHMC groups endorsed a higher number of complaints on two of the self-report questionnaires (Solvent Questionnaire and Cognitive Failure Questionnaire) than the control group. The previously exposed group reported a greater number of depressive complaints than the control group. When the differences were calculated between their premorbid and current Performance Intelligence, CHMC staff members who were previously exposed had a larger mean difference than did the controls. Differences between these two groups were also found on the Digit Symbol subscale of the WAIS-R, Visual Memory Span (WMS-R subscale) and all three subtests of the Stroop Colour-Word Test. The recently exposed group recalled a fewer number of digit-symbol pairs (WAIS-R NI subscale) than did the controls. The tests which have shown a difference at this level all involve visually presented material. The Cognitive Failure Questionnaire was the only measure sensitive enough to predict group membership between the CHMC groups and the control group. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)