Table 3.

Summary of literature review related to age as physiological driver of diversity.

Reference, year	No. of papers reviewed by reference (for the specific diversity factor)	Methodological quality of the literature review	General conclusion(s)	Effect of diversity factor on thermal comfort established by review
Fanger, 1973 [58]	7	Non-systematic review, field & laboratory studies (verify)	No influence of age on preferred ambient temperature	−
Van Hoof, 2008 [61]	3	Non-systematic review, field & laboratory	Older adults do not principally perceive comfort differently from younger groups but might have lower activity level and basal metabolism resulting in a preference of higher ambient temperature.	±
Mishra and Ramgopal, 2013 [59]	5	Non-systematic review, only field studies	Three studies indicate elderly feeling cooler or preferring a higher ambient temperature; two papers state differences in neutral temperature but results of those not conclusive.	±
Rupp, Vasquez and Lamberts, 2015 [60]	8	Systematic review; 2 laboratory studies, 3 field studies	Laboratory studies: One study states no effect of age; another study does report that older people had more distal vasoconstriction and preferred a higher temperature than young adults. Field studies: Young children compared with adults have greater sensitivity to changes in their metabolism and prefer lower temperatures than those predicted by PMV. Two field studies in naturally-ventilated buildings found no significant relationship between age and thermal comfort.	±
Wang et al., 2018 [62]	14	Systematic review, 4 laboratory studies, 10 field studies	Laboratory studies: Three out of four studies do not find significant age-related difference in preferred room temperature; one study claims weak difference but does not report significance values. Field studies: Two studies report significant age-related differences in comfort temperatures, both stating that the elderly preferred higher temperatures than the younger counterparts. One other study reported the opposite, a higher comfort temperature for younger subjects (below 25): 0.7°C higher than senior subjects (older than 25). Yet another study reports that the PMV model overestimates the mean neutral temperature for elderly people by 5°C in winter, but underestimates by 0.3°C in summer. Two studies report weak age-related differences, but no significance reported. Four studies report no significant relationship between thermal comfort and age.	±