An occupational study of employees with VDU-associated symptoms: the importance of stress

✍ Scribed by Berg, Mats ;Bengt, Arnetz

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 319 KB
• Volume: 12
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0748-8386
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1700(199601)12:1<51::aid-smi678>3.0.co;2-6

✦ Synopsis

Health problems associated with work with video display units (VDUs) are a growing public health concern. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the association between the psychosocial work environment and such complaints. We followed 47 white-collar employees with and without VDU-associated skin complaints during one regular work day and a day of leisure in otherwise identical electromagnetic environments. VDU workers with skin symptoms reported higher control over work processes but nevertheless experienced more extreme job stress. We postulate that employees suffering from cognitive failure during VDU work develop 'techno-stress'. In the future, considerably more attention needs to be directed to the occupational health consequences of new technologies.

KEY WORDS-VDU work; stress: high-tech

A growing number of employees have complained of health problems associated with visual display unit (VDU) work, including psychosocial concerns.' One of the more common VDU-associated complaints concerns the skin.' Since the mideighties, many Swedish office employees have reported having skin symptoms precipitated by VDU work. A large-scale epidemiologic study-' reported that while subjective facial skin symptoms were more common among VDU exposed persons, there were no significant differences between exposed and non-exposed groups in objective skin signs or skin disease. Nor had persons with skin complaints any specific facial histological changes4 compared to healthy controls. The initial focus on VDUs was later extended to other electric and magnetic fields generated by electric equipment. Despite much research, little is known about the aetiology of these alleged skin problem^.^,^ However, it has been postulated that occupational psychosocial stress may be an important contributory factor in precipitating VDU-associated health problems. 's7v8