Article

Association between duration of daily VDT use and subjective symptoms

  1. Tetsuya Nakazawa MD1,*,
  2. Yasushi Okubo MD, PhD1,
  3. Yasushi Suwazono MD, PhD1,
  4. Etsuko Kobayashi PhD1,
  5. Shingo Komine MD, PhD2,
  6. Norihisa Kato MD, PhD2,
  7. Koji Nogawa MD, PhD1

Article first published online: 15 OCT 2002

DOI: 10.1002/ajim.10133

Issue

American Journal of Industrial Medicine

American Journal of Industrial Medicine

Volume 42, Issue 5, pages 421–426, November 2002

Additional Information

How to Cite

Nakazawa, T., Okubo, Y., Suwazono, Y., Kobayashi, E., Komine, S., Kato, N. and Nogawa, K. (2002), Association between duration of daily VDT use and subjective symptoms. American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 42: 421–426. doi: 10.1002/ajim.10133

Author Information

  1. 1

    Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan

  2. 2

    Shutoken Health Administration Center, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone East Corporation, Japan

*Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, 1-8-1 Inohana Chuo-ku Chiba city, Chiba, 260-8670, Japan.

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 15 OCT 2002
  2. Article first published online: 15 OCT 2002
  3. Manuscript Accepted: 5 AUG 2002

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Keywords:

  • visual display;
  • terminal;
  • subjective symptoms;
  • dose-effect relationship;
  • disorder of sleep;
  • Japanese workers

Abstract

Background

Although visual display terminal (VDT) work has become a common task among office workers, surveys which would help to determine the allowable duration of daily VDT use are limited.

Methods

We investigated more than 25,000 workers three times over a 3-year period using a self-administered questionnaire. Three factors, namely mental, physical and sleep-related symptoms, were extracted by factor analysis. Adjusted means of each factor score were compared with the duration of daily VDT use by general linear model.

Results

Physical symptoms score became higher with increasing duration of daily VDT use without a threshold effect. Mental and sleep-related symptom scores of the workers using VDT for more 5 hr/day were significantly higher than that of the groups using VDT for >1, 1–3, and 3–5 hr/day.

Conclusions

Duration of daily VDT use was linearly related to the physical symptom score, and was non-linearly related to mental and sleep-related symptom score with a threshold effect of 5 hr/day. Am. J. Ind. Med. 42:421–426, 2002. © 2002 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

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