## 4 Discussion  
The factors affecting patients' comfort in hospital wards include factors other than acoustic and thermal influences. In the following paragraphs, some major factors are discussed, which must be reviewed and updated in future studies. **House-related factors**. Aspects related to the house configuration significantly affect the indoor environment. The room location (facing the street vs. facing a quiet side) was found to be correlated with road traffic noise annoyance [38]. In this study, the room location has a significant influence on acoustic comfort and thermal comfort. Rooms facing the streets were found to negatively affect annoyance caused by the passage of nearby traffic. However, due to these rooms facing south, bringing in more light, indoor thermal conditions were rated relatively higher than those facing north. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \hline
**Source** & **Mean Square** & **F** & **Sig.** \\ \hline Temperature (A) & 1575.423 & 90.815 & 0.000 \\ Humidity (B) & 313.087 & 18.512 & 0.000 \\ Temperature * Humidity (A * B) & 18.902 & 1.428 & 0.298 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 6: Mixed design analyses of variance (ANOVAs). Dependent Variable: LAeq. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Temperature** & **Temperature** & **Mean** & **St. Error** & **Sig.** & **95\% Confidence Interval** \\ (I) & **(J)** & **Difference (I–J)** & **St. Error** & **Lower Bound** & **Upper Bound** \\ \hline
18 & 22 & 6.018 & 1.700 & 0.116 & \(-\)1.23 & 13.266 \\  & 26 & 18.176 ** & 1.700 & 0.000 & 12.968 & 23.384 \\  & 30 & 26.897 ** & 1.700 & 0.000 & 17.616 & 36.178 \\
22 & 18 & \(-\)6.018 & 1.700 & 0.116 & \(-\)13.266 & 1.23 \\  & 26 & 12.088 ** & 1.700 & 0.000 & 10.665 & 13.511 \\  & 30 & 15.286 ** & 1.700 & 0.000 & \(9.683\) & 20.889 \\
26 & 18 & \(-\)18.176 ** & 1.700 & 0.000 & \(-\)23.384 & \(-\)12.968 \\  & 22 & \(-\)12.088 ** & 1.700 & 0.000 & \(-\)13.511 & \(-\)10.665 \\  & 30 & 9.575 ** & 1.700 & 0.002 & \(3.981\) & 15.169 \\
30 & 18 & \(-\)26.897 ** & 1.700 & 0.000 & \(-\)36.178 & \(-\)17.616 \\  & 22 & \(-\)15.286 ** & 1.700 & 0.000 & \(-\)20.889 & \(-\)9.683 \\  & 26 & \(-\)9.575 ** & 1.700 & 0.002 & \(-\)15.169 & \(-\)3.981 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 7: Multiple comparisons analyses. Dependent Variable: LAeq. Figure 3 provides the measured LAeq over the test period with different ward capacities. Since the density of patients and the size of the space affect the indoor thermal and acoustic environment, we investigated wards with different numbers of beds. It should be noted that the environmental noise in six-bed rooms and eight-bed rooms were higher than that in single, double, and quad rooms. This indicated that the patient density had a significant impact on environmental noise, which is consistent with a study of an underground commercial street [39]. The noise level of each ward starts to rise at 8:00 and becomes relatively quiet from 12:00 to 14:00 because of the lunch break. The peak noise at 70-75 dB occurs from 9:00-11:00 and 15:00-17:00, and this level of noise can be annoying or uncomfortable. As in previous studies, more occurrences of noises with longer duration were observed in multiple-bed wards, as compared with single-bed wards [40]. This indicates that the measurement results of the acoustic environment were similar to those in different climate regions. **Person-related factors**. Gender and age are factors that must be taken into account in the assessment of comfort in a hospital [41]. The mean difference between males and females in the evaluation of thermal and acoustic comfort was determined, and there is no significant difference (\(p<0.1\)) between males and females in terms of acoustic comfort, with a similar mean value (female 4.21 and male 4.12), as shown in Figure 4. These results were consistent with those of previous studies, which suggested that the effect of gender on sound annoyance evaluation is generally insignificant [42; 43; 44].