## 2 Materials and Methods
### Personal Comfort, Reported Health Symptoms and Self-Assessed Productivity  
The satisfaction of the occupants toward the following parameters was evaluated: overall comfort, temperature (overall, too hot/cold, variation), air movement, air quality (overall air quality satisfaction, humid or dry air, stuffy or fresh air, odor), light (overall light satisfaction, natural, artificial, glare), noise (overall noise satisfaction, outside noise, noise from building systems, noise within the building), vibration, amount of privacy, office layout, office decoration, and view from the windows. The following question was used: 'How would you describe the typical indoor conditions in your office environment during the past month?' or 'How would you describe the following in your office?' A seven-point Likert-like scale answer (from \"1, dissatisfied\" to \"7, satisfied\") was provided for most of the questions, except for those questions investigating two extreme conditions in contrast where a seven-point scale answer ranging from \(-\)3 to 3 was adopted (Table 2) and converted to a scale from 1 to 7 as follow: +/\(-\)3 = 1; +/\(-\)2 = 3; +/\(-\) 1 =5; 0 = 7.  
The occupants were also requested to estimate their productivity at the workstation and in other locations inside the building, considering the influence of environmental conditions on a scale of 7 levels, from +30% to \(-\)30%. In addition, they were requested to record building-related health symptoms. The Personal Symptom Index-5 (PSI-5) was calculated based on the incidence of five health symptoms--dry eyes, blocked or stuffy nose, dry throat, headache, and  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c} \hline \hline
**Parameter** & **Sub-Parameters** & **Type of Answer** \\ \hline Overall Comfort & & Seven-point Likert-like scale \\ Temperature & Overall temperature & Seven-point Likert-like scale \\  & Too hot/too cold temperature & From “\(-\)3, too hot” to “+3, too cold” \\  & Temperature variation & From “\(-\)3, too much” to “+3, not enough” \\ Air movement & & From “\(-\)3, too draughy” to “+3, too still” \\ Air quality & Overall air quality & Seven-point Likert-like scale \\  & Humid/dry air & From “\(-\)3, too humid” to “+3, too dry” \\  & Stuffy or fresh air & Seven-point Likert-like scale \\  & Odor & Seven-point Likert-like scale \\ Light & Overall light & Seven-point Likert-like scale \\  & Natural & Seven-point Likert-like scale \\  & Artificial & Seven-point Likert-like scale \\  & Clare & Seven-point Likert-like scale \\ Noise & Overall noise & Seven-point Likert-like scale \\  & Outside noise & Seven-point Likert-like scale \\  & Noise from building systems & Seven-point Likert-like scale \\  & Noise within the building & Seven-point Likert-like scale \\ Vibration & & Seven-point Likert-like scale \\ Amount of privacy & & Seven-point Likert-like scale \\ Office layout & & Seven-point Likert-like scale \\ Office decoration & & Seven-point Likert-like scale \\ View from the windows & & Seven-point Likert-like scale \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 2: Questions used to investigate occupants’ indoor environment quality perception in the OFFICAIR project.  
are considered to be the fundamental components of sick building symptoms as mentioned by [PERSON] et al. [41]. This indicator has a 0 to 5 score, according to the prevalence of the reported symptoms. The respective question was: 'Have you ever experienced any of the following symptoms while working in this building (or workstation) (including today)?'