Psychosocial factors associated with sick building syndrome in a biased and unbiased population of office employees occupying two buildings in South Africa

The relationship between psychosocial characteristics and sick building syndrome(SBS) was explored among 348 employees occupying two buildings engaged in thepublic sector in Pretoria, South Africa. One building was characterized as sick(building B), whilst the other was not a known sick building (building A). Based on theEnvironmental Quality Survey and symptom checklist, respondents in the sickbuilding reported significantly higher levels of stress, lower levels of environmentalcontrol, lower levels of job satisfaction and lower overall environmental satisfaction.There was a significant relationship between job stress, job satisfaction and overallenvironmental satisfaction and the number of SBS symptoms reported by employees ineach building. Multiple regression analysis revealed these variables significantlyexplained the variance in the number of symptoms reported in each building. Theassociations between psychological symptoms and symptoms characteristic of SBSsuggest that SBS symptoms may be attributed to psychosocial factors, or at least bepsychologically mediated.