Study on the Design of Interior Lighting for the Environmental Satisfaction of Patients in Wards

Background: At present, the quality of the indoor environment in hospitals is attracting a lot of attention from society in order to improve the recovery and well-being of patients due to the requirements of health outcomes. Lighting plays a significant role in healthcare environments, directly affecting the physical and mental health of patients. However, most artificial lighting designs have not carefully considered the user experience, which means that some results or conclusions may not reflect reality. Users spend most of their time in hospital wards and their opinions are an invaluable guide for hospital architects. Objective: This study aims to investigate patients’ environmental satisfaction in wards with different interior lighting conditions, in order to provide useful advice for good designs of healthcare environments. Methods: Field investigations and a randomized controlled trial (RCT), which lasted four months (from 1st March 2022 to 30th June 2022), were conducted at the intensive care liver unit of a Class A hospital in Jiujiang, Jiangxi Province, China. Parameter values of nighttime lighting for these experiments were designed based on academic literature and the Standard for Lighting Design of Buildings (GB50034-2013). A questionnaire survey was conducted to investigate the problems faced by the artificial lighting environment in the wards. Data on patients’ satisfaction were collected by individual interviews under different parameters (i.e., illumination levels of 100 lx and 200 lx, light positions at head of the bed, opposite the bed and on the ceiling), and linear regression analysis was used for statistical analysis. Conclusions: This study showed that patients prefer bedhead lights with an illumination level of 200 lx and a color temperature of 3000 K. In addition, adjustable lighting in wards will improve the environmental satisfaction of patients, which will be verified in further studies. All findings can be used as evidence to inform the design of interior lighting in wards toward a better healthcare environment for health outcomes.