Visual, musculoskeletal and neuropsychological health complaints of workers using videodisplay terminal and an occupational health guideline

Abstract

A nationwide survey of workers using videodisplay terminals (VDT) was conducted and the data of various health complaints were compiled for a total of 5,097 VDT workers in 23 types of enterprises. Various symptoms or complaints were classified into transient and persistent groups, and attempts were made to determine their causal factors in the working conditions. In the transient complaint group, complaints of the visual function were the most frequent, followed by musculoskeletal and neuropsychological complaints; this indicated that visual loads from the VDT screen and musculoskeletal loads from a fixed working posture constituted the major causes of the complaints. Troublesome factors for the VDT work mainly embraced characteristics of the VDT screen, such as reflection of light, inadequate brightness and blurred margin of the letters, etc, and the arrangement of VDT, documents and keyboards. In the persistent complaint group, neuropsychological complaints appeared most frequently followed by complaints of the visual function and general body discomfort or fatigue. Mental attitude and motivation to the VDT work diverged, at a similar incidence, into two opposite groups, ie, interesting and bored. The complaints of various categories, ie, visual, musculoskeletal, neuropsychological and general body fatigue, were correlated with the working conditions: environmental conditions played a major role in the manifestation of these complaints. On the basis of these analyses, preferable measures were proposed to reduce complaints among VDT workers.