# Thermal Comfort Applied in Hospital Environments: A Literature Review
###### Abstract  
The predicted mean vote (PMV) is the most widely used model around the world to assess thermal comfort in indoor environments. The year 2020 marks the 50 th anniversary of the PMV model and also the year in which the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic. In this context, hospital environments and health professionals are at the center of attention, and a good indoor environment for those professionals to develop their activities is essential. Thus, considering the PMV model and focusing on hospital environments, this study performed a literature review of studies published between 1968 and August 2020. The research identified 153 papers on thermal comfort and its application in hospitals, health centers, and elderly centers. Specific inclusion and exclusion criteria were adopted to determine the most relevant studies for the four research questions proposed in this study. After applying the exclusion criteria, 62 studies were included in order to identify their main characteristics. In the universe of the 62 studies, this review identified 24 studies that applied the PMV model and 12 where there was a comparison of PMV and the thermal sensation votes (TSV) reported by people. The main findings of this research are: (i) A good thermal environment for professionals and patients is important, and more studies are needed; (ii) there are little explored topics, such as productivity related to thermal comfort in hospital environments; (iii) in addition to thermal comfort, other indoor environmental quality (IEQ) parameters have also been evaluated, such as indoor air quality (IAQ); (iv): the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted how the quality of indoor spaces is important in order to ensure occupant's health. thermal comfort; thermal conditions; predicted mean vote (PMV); indoor environmental quality (IEQ); hospital; health centers; elderly centers +
Footnote †: journal:  
in that it is the year in which the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), which causes the disease COVID-19, a pandemic [13]. The attention of scientists and researchers from different areas has turned to this theme, putting hospitals and health centers in the spotlight. These facilities have been forced to review their mode of operation to serve a very large number of infected patients in almost all countries around the world. Although hospital environments are now at the center of attention, the relationship between these environments and studies on thermal comfort is not recent, having started several decades ago, even before [PERSON]'s studies. One of the first studies that combined thermal comfort and hospital environments is the research performed by [PERSON], [PERSON], and [PERSON] [14], carried out in the British Isles. The authors performed measurements of air temperature, relative humidity, air movement, and radiant temperature, as well as applied questionnaires to teams in 30 operating rooms to collect data on their feeling of thermal sensation using the Bedford 7-point scale. The objective was to investigate, by means of sequential multiple regression analysis, the influence of these aspects on comfort. It was observed that all variables collected, with emphasis on air temperature, had some significant effect on the staff. The first study developed in hospitals that cited [PERSON]'s research was performed by [PERSON] and [PERSON] [15]. In this study, the authors explain that environmental thermal conditions should maximize the comfort of patients in the \"uniforms\" that they wear. According to the authors, this relationship could be determined since [PERSON] established values such as clothes and metabolic activity level for a population, and thus, it is possible to estimate thermal comfort in any situation. However, the authors claimed that due to the peculiarities of the wards' environment, they chose to conduct the study autonomously to determine the preferred conditions for the hospital tested.