published_or_final_version / Public Health / Master / Master of Public Health

Through a personal decision to create and promote psychological states of calm, relaxation, and transcendence, this project was born to study and research light, art, and health to find points in common to create an experience focused on health care spaces, specifically cancer facilities. This exploration aims to improve or enhance the well-being of users in waiting rooms to some extent through light. Based on the literature review, a dynamic and immersive experience with light was developed within a space simulating waiting rooms in hospitals. It was tested with 14 participants exposed to the experience for ten minutes. This thesis concludes that the dynamism in light is necessary to create engagement on the user. This dynamism simultaneously changing rhythmically in time generates a feeling of calmness and relaxation on the participants, perceived as a positive experience within the function of the space and the overall wellbeing of the users.

Esta pesquisa traz à tona, de forma interdisciplinar, estudos realizados e em andamento nas áreas de medicina, fisiologia, biologia, saúde pública, psicologia, engenharia e arquitetura, para investigar algumas alterações fisiológicas provocadas pela luz produzida pelos LEDs e, a partir da análise dos dados coletados, estabelecer em caráter preliminar novos parâmetros a serem considerados e aplicados ao projeto luminotécnico residencial que utiliza LEDs como fonte de luz. Desenvolvemos um protocolo para coletar os dados e comparar, para cada sujeito, o comportamento das variáveis entre dois períodos distintos, com a duração de 3 dias cada: um período em que, à noite, os sujeitos utilizaram óculos bloqueadores de luz azul (Período BB) e outro em que, também à noite, permaneceram expostos à iluminação artificial de LEDs em seus ambientes de maior permanência, previamente por eles definidos (Período LED). Verificamos a carga excretada de 6-sulfatoximelatonina na urina noturna de 12 horas (n=10), as variações de temperatura corporal (n=9) e as variáveis produzidas por meio da actimetria (n=10). Confrontamos estes dados com a literatura atual e com as características dos respectivos sistemas de iluminação. Do grupo de 10 sujeitos, 7 apresentaram redução da carga excretada de 6-sulfatoximelatonina do Período BB para o Período LED. A análise de temperatura corporal do grupo de 9 sujeitos, revelou que 7 deles apresentaram atraso de fase do respectivo ritmo do Período BB para o Período LED. A actimetria não revelou diferenças significativas entre os períodos. Porém, para o grupo que apresentou redução da carga excretada de 6-sulfatoximelatonina do Período BB para o Período LED, o L5 (período de 5 horas de menor atividade motora) apresentou um atraso de fase médio de 15 minutos. Os resultados desta pesquisa comprovam, pela primeira vez por meio de um estudo de campo, que os LEDs utilizados nos sistemas de iluminação artificial do ambiente residencial, possuem a capacidade de causar impactos deletérios na saúde dos usuários. / This research uses interdisciplinary ongoing studies in medicine, physiology, biology, public health, psychology, engineering and architecture, to investigate some physiological changes caused by the light emitted by LEDs and, based on the results, establish in a preliminary way, new parameters to be considered and applied to residential lighting projects using LEDs as a light source. We developed a protocol to collect some data and we compared, for each subject, the values between two distinct periods of 3 days each: the BB Period, where subjects wore blue-light blocking glasses at night, and the LED Period, where they were exposed to their room\'s LED lights at night. We verified the excreted load of 6-sulfatoxymelatonin in the 12-hour overnight urine (n=10), changes in pheripheral body temperature (n=9), and the variables of actimetry (n=10). We analyzed these data using information provided by the current literature and crossed these data with the characteristics of the lighting systems. Within the group of 10 subjects, 7 had a reduction in the excreted load of 6-sulfatoxymelatonin from the BB Period to the LED Period. The analysis of body temperature from the group of 9 subjects revealed that 7 of them showed acrophase phase delay from the BB Period to the LED Period. Actimetry did not reveal significant differences between these periods. However, for the group which showed a reduction in the excreted load of 6-sulfatoxymelatonin from the BB Period to the LED Period, the L5 (least active 5-hour period) presented, in average, a 15-minute phase delay. The results of this research prove, for the first time through a field study, that the LEDs used in residential lighting systems fave the capacity to cause deleterious impacts on users\' health.

Esta pesquisa traz à tona, de forma interdisciplinar, estudos realizados e em andamento nas áreas de medicina, fisiologia, biologia, saúde pública, psicologia, engenharia e arquitetura, para investigar algumas alterações fisiológicas provocadas pela luz produzida pelos LEDs e, a partir da análise dos dados coletados, estabelecer em caráter preliminar novos parâmetros a serem considerados e aplicados ao projeto luminotécnico residencial que utiliza LEDs como fonte de luz. Desenvolvemos um protocolo para coletar os dados e comparar, para cada sujeito, o comportamento das variáveis entre dois períodos distintos, com a duração de 3 dias cada: um período em que, à noite, os sujeitos utilizaram óculos bloqueadores de luz azul (Período BB) e outro em que, também à noite, permaneceram expostos à iluminação artificial de LEDs em seus ambientes de maior permanência, previamente por eles definidos (Período LED). Verificamos a carga excretada de 6-sulfatoximelatonina na urina noturna de 12 horas (n=10), as variações de temperatura corporal (n=9) e as variáveis produzidas por meio da actimetria (n=10). Confrontamos estes dados com a literatura atual e com as características dos respectivos sistemas de iluminação. Do grupo de 10 sujeitos, 7 apresentaram redução da carga excretada de 6-sulfatoximelatonina do Período BB para o Período LED. A análise de temperatura corporal do grupo de 9 sujeitos, revelou que 7 deles apresentaram atraso de fase do respectivo ritmo do Período BB para o Período LED. A actimetria não revelou diferenças significativas entre os períodos. Porém, para o grupo que apresentou redução da carga excretada de 6-sulfatoximelatonina do Período BB para o Período LED, o L5 (período de 5 horas de menor atividade motora) apresentou um atraso de fase médio de 15 minutos. Os resultados desta pesquisa comprovam, pela primeira vez por meio de um estudo de campo, que os LEDs utilizados nos sistemas de iluminação artificial do ambiente residencial, possuem a capacidade de causar impactos deletérios na saúde dos usuários. / This research uses interdisciplinary ongoing studies in medicine, physiology, biology, public health, psychology, engineering and architecture, to investigate some physiological changes caused by the light emitted by LEDs and, based on the results, establish in a preliminary way, new parameters to be considered and applied to residential lighting projects using LEDs as a light source. We developed a protocol to collect some data and we compared, for each subject, the values between two distinct periods of 3 days each: the BB Period, where subjects wore blue-light blocking glasses at night, and the LED Period, where they were exposed to their room\'s LED lights at night. We verified the excreted load of 6-sulfatoxymelatonin in the 12-hour overnight urine (n=10), changes in pheripheral body temperature (n=9), and the variables of actimetry (n=10). We analyzed these data using information provided by the current literature and crossed these data with the characteristics of the lighting systems. Within the group of 10 subjects, 7 had a reduction in the excreted load of 6-sulfatoxymelatonin from the BB Period to the LED Period. The analysis of body temperature from the group of 9 subjects revealed that 7 of them showed acrophase phase delay from the BB Period to the LED Period. Actimetry did not reveal significant differences between these periods. However, for the group which showed a reduction in the excreted load of 6-sulfatoxymelatonin from the BB Period to the LED Period, the L5 (least active 5-hour period) presented, in average, a 15-minute phase delay. The results of this research prove, for the first time through a field study, that the LEDs used in residential lighting systems fave the capacity to cause deleterious impacts on users\' health.

There is a golden hour between life and death. That hour could bring valuable realizations in a person’s life. In the last few decades, hospice and palliative care went through evolutions to make a better sense of death without treating death neglecting the human experience, which plays a major factor in overall health and well-being. A palliative approach focuses on life than focusing on death, it facilitates the optimization of life for patients livingwith terminal diseases, allowing them not to feel left behind or forgotten. As the golden hour of life arrives and seeks palliative care which is total care ensuring physiological, psychological, social, and spiritual care, we can ponder over something supporting emotions from the beginning of time. Buried deep within our collective unconscious lies ancient memories of the eternal cycle of light and dark that created our archetypical patterns of thinking and feeling. With cultural beliefs and practices affecting these emotions about the transition, there should be a pattern in which daylight evokes our feelings and thoughts. This thesis is a journey to discover the association of the daylight cycle with the activities that can evoke a sense of total care. Through the study mapping state of mind with the daylight change in 35 people in Bangladesh and preference study with 8 patients in a palliative care, the paper comes to draw attention that daylight change and views can be associated with the cycle of emotion and can give the feeling of a good life. As important as it is to glorify the experience of finding comfort, so is the art of letting go, feeling good about life, and being near a good ending. A painless ending is not only a state of body, it is also a state of mind. This thesis is an attempt to discover the first steps toward it.

This Master thesis was aimed at investigating common daylight evaluation methods related to Swedish building codes versus human perception of daylight in residential spaces. Field (interview) and simulation-based study were conducted in one of the typical 20thcentury residential, closed courtyard buildings in Stockholm.   12 residents of Kv. Väktaren 16 were interviewed and simulation models were prepared for the apartments occupied by the participants.   Resident perception of light was mostly contrary to daylight assessing values and methods of daylight factor – DF in a point (CIE overcast sky) and alternative method of window to floor area ratio – AF that are stated in Swedish standard (Boverkets byggregler BFS 2016:6).    Attractive and interesting view, access to direct sunlight and visual comfort played important role in overall occupant satisfaction level, this suggests that daylight metrics should include perception-based factors, which positively impact our health and well-being.