le travail à l'écran de visualisation work with display units

MUSCULOSKELETAL PROBLEMS IN RELATION TO DIFFERENT VDT TASKSBirgitta Nilsson, Margaretha Yoss and Ulf Bergqvist, Department of Applied WorkPhysiology and Department of Neuromedicine, National Institute of Occupational Health,Solna, Sweden.This investigation is part of a study of 353 office workers in seven different companies,aimed to elucidate possible relationships between VDT work and adverse health effects.In this part, different types of VDT work are related to the prevalence of musculoskeletaldiscomforts.Discomforts were recorded both by a questionnaire and by an examination performed bya physical therapist. In the questionnaire, the subjects gave information on their worktasks. Furthermore, a workplace evaluation for each operator was performed. Theevaluation consisted of three parts; a risk evaluation of work postures and workingmovements, a description of the physical layout of the work place, and measurements offunctional anthropometry.In the first part of the present study - reported in another paper at this conference - a highprevalence of neck discomforts was found. Neck discomforts were not shown, however,to be correlated with VDT working hours per se. Considerable differences in neckdiscomfort prevalences were found between the different companies. Thus, in this secondpart, differences in work tasks and work station layouts were investigated, as motivatedby the apparent differences in workplace and work tasks between the different companies.Female operators performing data entry work or a combination of data entry work andword processing were found to have higher prevalences of neck discomforts than thoseperforming other tasks. The working hours spent at data entry work appeared, however,to have little correlation with neck discomforts.86% of the female VDT operators had also non-VDT tasks included in their work. Thevariations in type of non-VDT task was, however, not directly related to neckdiscomforts. Further data on both VDT and non-VDT work tasks by an independentobserver are included in the workplace evaluations.The analysis of data from the workplace evaluation, including further information ondifferent types of VDT as well as non-VDT tasks, is ongoing.Keywords: Neck discomforts, data entry, workplace evaluation.MUSCULOSKELETAL PROBLEMS AMONG OFFICE WORKERSEwa Wolgast, College of Physiotherapy, Uppsala, Sweden.Ulf Bergqvist and Birgitta Nilsson, Department of Neuromedicine and Department ofApplied Work Physiology, National Institute of Occupational Health, Solna, SwedenThis investigation is part of a study of 353 office workers (80% women) in 7 companies,aimed to elucidate possible relationships between VDT work and health effects. In thispart, musculoskeletal problems are investigated, and related to some basic parameters ofoffice and VDT work.90% of the study population was investigated by a physical therapist. This consisted of ashort interview, followed by movement, strength and palpation examinations of the upperbody. Diagnoses were made, based on at least three cooperating findings. Likewise, 90%of the study population responded to a lengthy questionnaire, which included the NordicCouncil of Ministers questionnaire on musculoskeletal problems.For neck, elbow and hand discomforts, there was an 82% agreement between theexaminations and the questionnaires. In the majority of the 18% disagreements,discomforts were reported in the questionnaire, without any diagnosis being made by thephysical therapist.A diagnosis of neck discomfort was made for 44% of the women and 29% of the men. Forshoulder; the corresponding frequencies were 15% and 4%, respectively, for elbow; 7 and0%, respectively, and for hand; 8% and 1% respectively. There appeared to be no drasticage dependencies in these data. Due to these findings, the remainder of this preliminaryreport is limited to neck problems in women.There was no correlation between self-reported VDT work times (hours/ week) andfrequencies of neck diagnoses. However, there were considerable differences in neckdiagnoses in women from different companies, suggesting the possibility of other workrelatedfactors. These findings were also true when comparisons were based onquestionnaire responses.The study revealed a high frequency of neck discomforts in the office workers understudy - a frequency which, however, did not depend on the "simple" measure of VDTwork duration. As motivated by the differences between companies, more realistic factorsare being looked for in various work types and/or stress situations.KEYWORDS: Neck discomforts, office work, diagnoses.TEV 1989 — DEUXIÈME CONFÉRENCE SCIENTIFIQUE INTERNATIONALE • MONTRÉAL • SECOND INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE — WWDU 198963TEV 1989 — DEUXIÈME CONFÉRENCE SCIENTIFIQUE INTERNATIONALE • MONTRÉAL • SECOND INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE — WWDU 1989125