Experimental Assessment of Thermal Sensation and Thermal Comfort of Sedentary Subjects: A Scoping Review

Background: Office workers spend most of their time engaged in sedentary tasks. Dissatisfaction with the thermal environment can reduce work efficiency and productivity. Objectives: This study presents the condensed results of a scoping review of the scientific literature assessing thermal sensation (TS) and thermal comfort (TC). The scoping review focuses on the experimental assessment of TS and TC. Eligibility criteria: The scoping review only considered peer-reviewed articles written in English. Grey literature, commissioned reports, and conference papers were excluded. Sources of evidence: The studies were retrieved from the PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases. The search criteria considered the expression (“thermal comfort” OR “therm* sensation” OR “thermosensation”) AND (“sedentary”). Charting methods: The data charting process or data extraction was based on the preparation of tables to compile the key findings of the selected articles. Results and conclusions: In total, 39 peer-reviewed articles were considered suitable for the scoping review. The scoping review shows that the existing international standards to predict TC may fail when multisensorial aspects are considered, when TS and TC are assessed over different times during the exposure to a thermal environment, and when different populations are considered.