Facial skin symptoms in visual display terminal (VDT) workers. A case-referent study of personal, psychosocial, building- and VDT-related risk indicators.
BACKGROUND
The Office Illness Project in northern Sweden, comprising both a screening questionnaire study of 4943 office workers and a case-referent study of facial skin symptoms in 163 subjects was recently completed. Previously published results from the survey showed that female gender, asthma/rhinitis, high psychosocial work load, visual display terminal (VDT) and paperwork were related to an increased prevalence of facial skin symptoms.


METHODS
The case-referent study presented in this paper used data from the questionnaire supplemented by information from a clinical examination, a survey of psychosocial factors at work, building data and VDT-related factors from inspection and measurements taken at the work site.


RESULTS
Psychosocial conditions and exposure to electromagnetic fields or conditions associated with such factors were related to an increased occurrence of skin symptoms. The results also indicated that personal factors such as atopic dermatitis and physical exposure factors influencing indoor air quality, such as paper exposure and cleaning frequency were related to an increased prevalence of symptoms.


CONCLUSIONS
The results suggest that skin symptoms reported by VDT users have a multifactorial background.
Department of Dermatology and Venereology, Umeå University, Sweden.
B
B
Stenberg
N
N
Eriksson
K H
KH
Mild
J
J
Höög
M
M
Sandström
J
J
Sundell
S
S
Wall
D000288:Administrative Personnel; D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D016288:Computer Terminals; D009783:Dermatitis, Occupational / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D004574:Electromagnetic Fields; D005148:Facial Dermatoses / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009790:Occupations; D016017:Odds Ratio; D012307:Risk Factors; D018877:Sick Building Syndrome / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology