Date of Award

Spring 6-4-2024

Document Type

Honors Project

University Scholars Director

Dr. Joshua Tom

First Advisor/Committee Member

Dr. John Douglass

Second Advisor/Committee Member

Dr. Charlotte Pratt

Keywords

lighting, health, review, road safety, outdoor lighting, traffic safety

Abstract

Although outdoor lighting has long been associated with reduced rates of traffic-related injuries and fatalities, a growing body of research associates it with various health problems. However, there are no systematic literature reviews on the human health impacts of outdoor lighting. This paper presents a multidisciplinary systematic literature review of current research regarding the relationship between outdoor lighting and human health. Outdoor lighting was defined as outdoor electric and vehicular lighting, while health was defined as matters pertaining to physiological wellbeing and the risk, presence, and degree of physical injuries, diseases, and disorders. A search of 45 databases produced 99 relevant papers, not counting duplicates. Of those 99, 47 met the inclusion criteria for this review. The papers that were reviewed were not in consensus as to how outdoor light impacts human health. The papers that only measured light levels using satellite imagery, an error-prone proxy for ground level light exposure, found outdoor lighting had a more negative impact on human health compared to papers that did not rely on satellite imagery. Future studies can strengthen this body of research by measuring study participants’ physiological responses directly and by measuring quantifiable lighting characteristics in participants’ immediate living environments.

Comments

A project submitted in partial fulfillment of the Seattle Pacific University Honors Program.

Copyright Status

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Additional Rights Information

Copyright held by author.

Download

Share

COinS
 
Copyright Status