Meta-Analysis of the Effect of Ventilation on Intellectual Productivity

Abstract

Indoor air quality (IAQ) influences the health and intellectual productivity of occupants. This paper summarizes studies investigating the relationship between intellectual productivity and IAQ with varying ventilation rates. We conducted a meta-analysis of five studies, with a total of 3679 participants, and performed subgroup analyses (arithmetic, verbal comprehension, and cognitive ability) based on the type of academic performance. The task performance speed and error rate were evaluated to measure intellectual productivity. The effect size of each study was evaluated using the standardized mean difference (SMD). In addition, we calculated a dose-response relationship between ventilation rate and intellectual productivity. The results show that the task performance speed improved, SMD: 0.18 (95% CI: 0.10–0.26), and the error rate decreased, SMD: −0.05 (95% CI: −0.11–0.00), with an increase in ventilation rate. Converting the intervention effect size on the SMD into the natural units of the outcome measure, our analyses show significant improvements in the task performance speed: 13.7% (95% CI: 6.2–20.5%) and 3.5% (95% CI: 0.9–6.1%) in terms of arithmetic tasks and cognitive ability, respectively. The error rate decreased by −16.1% (95% CI: −30.8–0%) in arithmetic tasks. These results suggest that adequate ventilation is necessary for good performance.