Higher attention capacity after improving indoor air quality by indoor plant placement in elementary school classrooms

Abstract

This research evaluated the attention capacity of 70 pupils in the sixth grade with the intervention of indoor air quality regulated by indoor plant placement in the classrooms of two elementary schools in Seoul, South Korea. Two sets of three-week measurements were conducted with an interval of 12 weeks from 27th June to 7th October, 2016. We divided subjects into two groups (Group I and II): Subjects in Group I occupied classrooms without indoor plants and those in Group II occupied classrooms with indoor plants. The classrooms with indoor plants had indoor levels with constant air temperature (approximately 26°C), relative humidity (around 50%), and carbon dioxide (CO2) (around 1100 mg·m−3). Additionally, 12-week placement of indoor plants reduced the indoor concentrations of airborne contaminants. After 12 weeks of the experiments, the subjects’ attention capacity improved as demonstrated by a standard questionnaire (Frankfurt Aufmerksamkeits-Invertar, FAIR). Indoor plant placement showed little difference in terms of efficiency (FAIR-E) and continuity (FAIR-C) scores, but exhibited a significant improvement for performance (FAIR-P) (increasing from 0.964 to 0.989) and quality (FAIR-Q) scores (increasing from 0.945 to 0.973). Based on multiple regression, the current study suggested that indoor plant placement was one of the most important factors to improve the attention capacity of pupils in classrooms.