The relationship between Video Display Terminals (VDTs) usage and dermatologic manifestations: a cross sectional study.
BACKGROUND
Recently, it has been observed that Video Display Terminals (VDTs) usage for long periods can cause some dermatological manifestations on the face. An analytical cross-sectional study was designed in order to determine this relationship.


METHODS
In this study, 600 office workers were chosen randomly from an organization in Tehran (Iran). The subjects were then divided into two groups based on their exposure to VDTs. 306 workers were considered exposure negative (non VDT user) who worked less than 7 hours a week with VDTs. The remainders 294 were exposure-positive, who worked 7 hours or more with VDTs. The frequency of dermatologic manifestations was compared in these two groups.


RESULTS
In the exposure-positive and exposure-negative groups, the frequency of these dermatologic manifestations were 27 and 5 respectively. After statistical analysis, a P.value of < 0.05 was obtained indicating a statistically significant difference between these two groups for dermatological manifestations.


CONCLUSIONS
According to our study, there is a relationship between dermatologic manifestations on the face and exposure to VDTs.
Aminian
Omid
O
Department of Occupational Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. oaminian@sina.tums.ac.ir
Mansoori
Parvin
P
Sharifian
Akbar
A
Rafeemanesh
Ehsan
E
Mazaheri
Maria
M
Iraniha
Mohammadreza
M
D000328:Adult; D016288:Computer Terminals; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005148:Facial Dermatoses / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000209:etiology*; D013997:Time Factors