The relationship between outdoor thermal environment, individual thermal exposure, and chest skin temperature: A field study in real-life conditions

IF 7.1 2区工程技术 Q1 CONSTRUCTION & BUILDING TECHNOLOGY

Energy and Buildings Pub Date : 2025-10-02 DOI:10.1016/j.enbuild.2025.116544

Wenli Jian , Ruyi Liang , Yuxin Yao , Yuyang Zhao , Yichen Liu , Anqi Guan , Jiarui Hu , Yuting Wang , Bin Wang , Jing Wang , Yuchen Hou , Yingxin Zhu , Xiuqing Cui , Weihong Chen , Bin Cao

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Environmental epidemiology traditionally relies on outdoor parameters to assess individual thermal exposure, despite individuals spending most of their time indoors. To quantitatively analyze the relationships among outdoor thermal environments, individual thermal exposure and chest skin temperature, we conducted a field study (n = 99), combining individual thermal monitoring with ERA5-Land reanalysis data. Linear regression and mixed-effects models were used to evaluate the environmental and human factors influencing thermal exposure and physiological responses. Participants (average age 53.1 years) spent over 80 % of their time indoors. Outdoor temperature and relative humidity (RH) were positively correlated with individual exposure parameters (r = 0.84 and r = 0.64 for temperature and RH, p < 0.01), but had limited explanatory power, especially in summer. Significant inter-individual differences existed in individual exposure temperature and RH. Age was significantly positively correlated with individual exposure temperature (p = 0.024), and sex had a significant influence on individual exposure RH (p < 0.01). Chest skin temperature also showed high variability relative to outdoor and personal exposure temperatures. These results indicate that relying solely on outdoor thermal environment parameters to characterize individual thermal exposure has limited validity and is insufficient. To enhance the accuracy of thermal exposure assessments, there is a need to integrate individual-level monitoring data and individual-specific characteristics into evaluation frameworks. This study contributes to advancing the understanding of thermal exposure dynamics in the Chinese population, expanding existing datasets, and highlights the indispensable role of indoor thermal environments in environmental health related studies and policy-making aimed at improving residents’ well-being.

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室外热环境、个体热暴露与胸部皮肤温度之间的关系：一项现实生活条件下的实地研究

环境流行病学传统上依赖于室外参数来评估个人热暴露，尽管个人大部分时间都在室内。为了定量分析室外热环境、个体热暴露与胸部皮肤温度之间的关系，我们将个体热监测与ERA5-Land再分析数据相结合，进行了实地研究（n = 99）。采用线性回归和混合效应模型评估环境和人为因素对热暴露和生理反应的影响。参与者（平均年龄53.1岁）在室内度过的时间超过80%。室外温度和相对湿度与个体暴露参数呈正相关（温度和相对湿度分别为r = 0.84和r = 0.64, p < 0.01），但解释力有限，尤其是在夏季。个体暴露温度和相对湿度存在显著的个体间差异。年龄与个体暴露温度呈显著正相关（p = 0.024），性别对个体暴露RH有显著影响（p < 0.01）。胸部皮肤温度也表现出相对于室外和个人暴露温度的高变异性。这些结果表明，仅仅依靠室外热环境参数来表征个体热暴露是有限的，是不够的。为了提高热暴露评估的准确性，需要将个人层面的监测数据和个人具体特征整合到评估框架中。本研究有助于增进对中国人口热暴露动态的理解，扩展现有数据集，并强调室内热环境在环境健康相关研究和旨在改善居民福祉的政策制定中不可或缺的作用。

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来源期刊

Energy and Buildings 工程技术-工程：土木

CiteScore

12.70

自引率

11.90%

发文量

863

审稿时长

38 days

期刊介绍： An international journal devoted to investigations of energy use and efficiency in buildings Energy and Buildings is an international journal publishing articles with explicit links to energy use in buildings. The aim is to present new research results, and new proven practice aimed at reducing the energy needs of a building and improving indoor environment quality.