Promote Physical Health/Improve Health Outcomes

The Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer is making available, at the web address noted below, an information-packed video that will be useful both to people designing lightscapes and also to anyone working from home.  At the source website, the LRC shares that it “has released a new video on how to maintain good sleep while working from home, or quarantining indoors, which is becoming more commonplace during the coronavirus pandemic.

Cai and associates investigated links between hearing road noise and obesity; their findings indicate the value of carefully managing the soundscapes in buildings near roads.  The researchers determined, using data from nearly 500,000 adults in three European regions, that “Environmental stressors such as transport noise may contribute to development of obesity through increased levels of stress hormones, sleep deprivation and endocrine disruption. . . .

Garnett and colleagues studied how physical distance can nudge people toward particular food choices in cafeterias; using design to encourage specific behaviors is frequently discussed, for example, in the context of supporting healthier living. The Garnett-lead team reports that they “undertook two experimental studies involving 105,143 meal selections in the cafeterias of a British university.

Gaminiesfahani and colleagues investigated how healthcare environments can best meet the needs of pediatric patients.  They determined via a review of published research that “the built environment characteristics of pediatric healthcare environments that have healing benefits include access to nature, music, art and natural light, reduced crowding, reduced noise, and soft, cyclical, and user-controlled artificial lighting.”