Anna Wanka

Health and Wellbeing of Occupants in Highly Energy Efficient Buildings: A Field Study

Passive houses and other highly energy-efficient buildings need mechanical ventilation. However, ventilation systems in such houses are regarded with a certain degree of skepticism by parts of the public due to alleged negative health effects. Within a quasi-experimental field study, we investigated if occupants of two types of buildings (mechanical vs. natural ventilation) experience different health, wellbeing and housing satisfaction outcomes and if associations with indoor air quality exist. We investigated 123 modern homes (test group: with mechanical ventilation; control group: naturally ventilated) built in the years 2010 to 2012 in the same geographic area and price range. Interviews of occupants based on standardized questionnaires and measurements of indoor air quality parameters were conducted twice (three months after moving in and one year later). In total, 575 interviews were performed (respondents’ mean age 37.9 ± 9 years in the test group, 37.7 ± 9 years in the control group). Occupants of the test group rated their overall health status and that of their children not significantly higher than occupants of the control group at both time points. Adult occupants of the test group reported dry eyes statistically significantly more frequently compared to the control group (19.4% vs. 12.5%). Inhabitants of energy-efficient, mechanically ventilated homes rated the quality of indoor air and climate significantly higher. Self-reported health improved more frequently in the mechanically ventilated new homes (p = 0.005). Almost no other significant differences between housing types and measuring time points were observed concerning health and wellbeing or housing satisfaction. Associations between vegetative symptoms (dizziness, nausea, headaches) and formaldehyde concentrations as well as between CO2 levels and perceived stale air were observed. However, both associations were independent of the type of ventilation. In summary, occupants of the mechanically ventilated homes rated their health status slightly higher and their health improved significantly more frequently than in occupants of the control group. As humidity in homes with mechanical ventilation was lower, it seems plausible that the inhabitants reported dry eyes more frequently.

Heat Vulnerability, Poverty and Health Inequalities in Urban Migrant Communities: A Pilot Study from Vienna

Climate change is projected to further increase heat waves in number, intensity and duration over most land areas in the twenty-first century. Among the urban population persons with migrant background are particularly considered to be at risk during heat waves due to the intersection of several risk factors: social status (poverty, manual labour), residential area (densely populated, disadvantaged urban areas, heat islands) and health condition. In this chapter we pledge for a differentiated approach in studying heat-related health outcomes and present first descriptive outcomes of two explorative case studies of multi-generation-families in Vienna, comparing a family with Turkish migrant background with a family without migrant background. The data consists of participant observation and in-depth interviews and has been generated in the course of the research project “Vulnerability of and adaption strategies for migrant groups in urban heat environments (EthniCityHeat)” between June and September 2014.

Technology Enhanced Learning for Senior Citizens.

Everything is now done online: reading newspapers, talking to friends and relatives, paying invoices and taxes, setting up doctor appointments, etc. As such, competences related to the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are fundamental. In particular, as mobile technologies and devices such as smartphones or tablets become more and more pervasive and ubiquitous, it is very important to tackle the digital divide issue. And, in a moment where socio-demographic changes resulted in a rapidly growing number of elderly people, it is fundamental to provide them the skills to be connected and integrated in this world. Otherwise, this will not be just a technological disadvantage, but rather a social disadvantage at a societal scale. This article presents a European-wide initiative that addresses this issue by providing technology enhanced training to this target group and an analysis of the achieved results.

Vulnerability to heatwaves and implications for public health interventions – A scoping review.

Background: Heatwaves form a serious public health threat, especially for vulnerable groups. Interventions such as active outreach programs, exposure reduction measures and monitoring and mapping of at‐risk groups are increasingly implemented across the world but little is known about their effect. Objectives: To assess how vulnerable groups are identified and reached in heat health interventions, to understand the effectiveness and efficiency of those interventions, and to identify research gaps in existing literature. Methods: We performed a literature search in relevant scientific literature databases and searched with a four element search model for articles published from 1995 onward. We extracted data on intervention measures, target group and evaluation of effectiveness and efficiency. Results: We identified 23 eligible studies. Patterns exist in type of interventions 1) to detect and 2) to influence extrinsic and intrinsic risk and protective factors. Results showed several intervention barriers related to the variety and intersection of these factors, as well as the self‐perception of vulnerable groups, and misconceptions and unfavorable attitudes towards intervention benefits. While modest indications for the evidence on the effectiveness of interventions were found, efficiency remains unclear. Discussion: Interventions entailed logical combinations of measures, subsumed as packages. Evidence for effective and efficient intervention is limited by the difficulty to determine effects and because single measures are mutually dependent. Interventions prioritized promoting behavioral change and were based on behavioral assumptions that remain untested and mechanisms not worked out explicitly. Conclusions: Multifaceted efforts are needed to tailor interventions, compiled in heat health warning systems and action plans for exposure reduction and protection of vulnerable populations, to fit the social, economic and geographical context. Besides adequately addressing relevant risk and protective factors, the challenge is to integrate perspectives of vulnerable groups. Future research should focus on intervention barriers and improving the methods of effectiveness and efficiency evaluation.

Spaces and practices of privacy in older age

The boundaries between the private and the public are continuously shift ing and blurring. People are confronted with a variety of “privacies” and “publicities” in their everyday lives and are challenged to avert manifold potential hazards from both From the time people wake up in the morning, they prepare themselves for an imagined public on the street, at the office, or the shopping mall by choosing what to wear and how to present themselves – and what to withhold Furthermore, individuals expose their own personal information such as shopping habits and health data by using debit and credit cards, electronic health insurance cards, smartphones, or Google search keywords. Conversely, when people use the elevator, sit at the doctor’s office, or wait in line at a store, they tend to behave in a reserved manner so as not to intrude on anyone’s privacy

Combining Technical and User Requirement Analysis to Support Wellbeing at the Workplace

The development of a technical system in order to support wellbeing of the workplace This work is supported by the EU and national funding organizations of EU member states under grant AAL 2013-6-063. demands for considering the requirements of the user, while developing state-of-the-art technology. Hence, in a first step, the requirements of the end user need to be analyzed as well as sensor technology of state-of-the-art sensors in order to match technology according to the users needs. Within this paper different sensors technologies are compared and the requirements of end user at the workplace are analyzed. By matching both, technological as well as sociological aspects allows for the development of technical system, fitting to the demands of end user.