Visual Affectations Due To The Use Of Video Display Terminals

Visual Affectations Due to the Use of Video Display Terminals

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine the effects of video display terminals use on eye health and vision. A group of users were studied using a three-section survey. The first section was focused on obtaining descriptive information related to the environment and demographics of the users. The second surveysection focuses on identifying if the users were familiar with the potential effects of computer use and the methods of prevention. The third section was oriented to identify the relationship between the exposure and the level of visual discomfort and related eye conditions. The results of this research have provided information to evaluate the existing situation and to prevent eye condition dueto the use of video display terminals. The implementation of preventive and corrective actions will help the employees to increase their productivity and efficiency at their working places.
1. Introduction

Every day there’s more and more people working with computers; this takes us to a growing number of people affected by ergonomic problems associated with PC workstations.Eye health and vision affectations are one of the most common computer-related conditions and are commonly known as Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS).
Even when CVS is rising among people who work for long periods of time in front of a video display terminal, there’s no evidence of permanent eye damage, caused by this exposure.
Another important thing to consider is that most of thesymptoms of CVS can be easily erased by applying preventive and corrective actions that would be mentioned later.

2. Methodology

With the objective of determining the prevalence of this CVS, associated factors and methods of prevention, I considered the use of a survey which was structured in three sections as explained below:
• Section 1: this section was focused on obtainingdemographic data, information related to the existing environment and pre-existing conditions.
• Section 2: oriented to identify the user’s knowledge associated to hazards and preventive measures.
• Section 3: focused on determining the existing relationship between the frequent use of computers and the prevalence of eye conditions.
In the first section, participants were asked to answerspecific questions such as age, sex, pre-existing eye conditions, hours of exposure per day, working hours per week, distance and angle between them and their video display terminals, lightning, use of eyeglasses or contact lenses, problems that they have while using computers, and display specifications.
In the second section, the participants answered questions by selecting from a list ofoptions, to determine which of the preventive and corrective actions they were applying, as well as the requirements for a less harmful screen. Qualitative questions weren’t used in this study.
All the participants were able to complete the survey in approximately 12 minutes.
All the data was summarized using descriptive statistics and percentages.

3. Results

Thirty persons participated in thisstudy, all of them work as analysts and their ages were between 23 and 44 years old (μ = 30.6, s = 5.70). Exactly 60% of the participants were female. The time of exposure was 39.5 hours per week on average (s = 5.41).
63.3% of the patients had at least one pre-existing condition (Table 1).

|Table 1 (Section 1) |
|Participantwith pre-existing conditions |
| | | |
|Problem |Count |Percentage |
|Prebyopia |8 |26.7% |
|Astigmatism |6 |20.0%...