A luz alem da visão : iluminação e sua relação com a saude e bem-estar de funcionarias de lojas de rua e de shopping centers em Porto Alegre / The light beyond vision : lighting and its relationship with health and well-being of employees at street and shopping mall retail stores in Porto Alegre

Betina Tschiedel Martau

This work addresses the issue of non-visual impacts of human exposure to light, in an attempt to relate the quality of lighting to health, comfort, and well-being of female retail store employees. The sample for the cross-sectional study was randomly established with female volunteers. Three groups were selected: street retail stores with outside contact and daily working hours (9 a.m. to 6 p.m.), shopping mall retail stores with no window facing outside, with daily working hours (10 a.m. to 6 p.m.), and shopping mall retail stores with no window facing outside, with afternoon and evening working hours (2 p.m. to 10 p.m.). Each group included ten employees. Assessment of lighting considered the dimensions of the stores and characteristics of systems, including the occurrence of glare, color appearance of light, flexibility, and possibility of lighting control by employees. The tools to assess well-being and health were psychometric scales internationally validated by the psychiatric field to measure depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms. Assessment of sleep conditions and analysis of the activity/rest rhythm was carried by a wrist monitor with attached luximeter (Actiwatch) and the analysis of the body temperature rhythm was made by a temperature sensor (Ibutton), to which each participant was submitted for five consecutive days. The lighting pattern s influence on the circadian system was verified by measuring saliva melatonin and cortisol levels. The degree of satisfaction of employees and their preferences regarding work environment lighting were surveyed by applying questionnaires. Data were analyzed using Pearson correlations, ANOVA, and stepwise regression, with the tool SPSS for Windows 13.0. In street retail store group, results indicate that even though employees satisfaction with lighting systems is not high, the presence of natural light contributes for their health and well-being. Crossing the assessment of satisfaction and emotional aspects with biological ones indicated that the higher the street retail store employees general satisfaction with lighting, the higher their melatonin level at 12 p.m. and the lower their depression scores. Possibility of outside visual contact in that group leads to better physiological conditions, especially sleep conditions, than the other groups. In shopping mall groups, the reverse correlation found between the store s average general illuminance and general satisfaction with lighting conditions in the work environment is worth pointing out, since scores were highest in that category (worse emotional conditions) in all scales applied and there are changes both in cortisol rhythm (tendency to lower rhythm in the morning and afternoon mall group) and in melatonin (tendency to phase delay in the afternoon and evening mall group) as well as differentiation in activity rhythm and temperature in the afternoon and evening mall group. Shopping mall employees miss visual contact with the outside, being able to vary lighting during the workday, and consider lighting as excessive. Most of them reported that they would like to reduce the amount of light in their workplace during the day. The study concludes that it is necessary to review the stores lighting strategies, whether they are street retail stores or shopping mall retail stores, to seek new guidelines able to solve the possible conflicts between light oriented to sell products and that which considers the store as a workplace.

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