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Stress
May Be a Factor In
Work-Related Eye Strain
NEW
YORK (Reuters Health) - Could your eye strain be caused by work-related
stress? Yes, according to Italian researchers, who report that
psychological factors such as self-esteem and co-worker conflict
are significant contributors to workers' complaints of eye strain.
``Job demands,
physical and psychological, influence the severity and frequency
of video display terminal operators' health complaints,'' Dr.
Francesco Mocci of the University of Sassari, Italy, and colleagues
write in the April issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental
Medicine.
The researchers
note that previous studies have implicated psychological factors
such as job demands in worker complaints of neck, shoulder, wrist
and back pain, but few have examined complaints of eye strain.
The investigators
queried 212 bank tellers about their job-related stress levels,
their perceived self-esteem, their discomfort with the workplace
environment, and whether they suffered from asthenopia, or eye
strain.
Eye strain
was defined as blurred vision, eye soreness or itching, double
vision or tearing.
The study
participants first received eye exams to exclude those with diagnosed
vision disorders. A third of the queried tellers complained that
they endured eye strain three times a week or more, either during
work hours or shortly afterwards.
Factors such
as work satisfaction, self-esteem and co-worker support were strongly
correlated with the workers' complaints of eye troubles, playing
as much as a 30% role in their eye strain, the authors report.
Meanwhile,
the researchers calculate that only 4% of the participants' eye
strain was due to environmental factors such as smoke and noise,
while lighting played no role at all.
``It has to
be recognized that work stress can produce physical and emotional
complaints,'' the study authors write.
Mocci and
colleagues suggest that future research should consider interventions
encouraging collegial support, in an attempt to reduce workplace
stress and further test the theory.
However, in
an interview with Reuters Health, optometrist Jeffrey L. Weaver,
director of the clinical care group for the American Optometric
Association, pointed out that prior research has concluded that
smoking, lighting, and even the exact placement of the computer
screen can have a large effect on eye problems.
``Before we
start accusing employees of having psychological factors in bringing
complaints,'' Weaver said, ``we better make sure they are being
taken care of in terms of setting up computers correctly and having
appropriate vision correction and normally functioning vision.''
He added that
the Italian researchers failed to screen for several visual conditions
that may have contributed to a number of eye strain complaints.
Those included in the survey may, in fact, have had undiagnosed
physical causes for their complaints, he cautioned.
SOURCE:
Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 2001;58:267
Reference
Source 89
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