NIOSHTIC-2 Publications Search

Summary of Two NIOSH Field Studies of Musculoskeletal Disorders and VDT Work among Telecommunications and Newspaper Workers.

Sauter S; Hales T; Bernard B; Fine L; Petersen M; Putz-Anderson V; Schleifer L; Ochs T

Work with Display Units 92, Selected Proceedings of the Third International Scientific Conference on Work with Display Units, Berlin, Germany, September 1-4, 1992 1993:229-234

00224120

Upper extremity (UE) musculoskeletal symptoms and disorders among video display terminal (VDT) workers were summarized in a report of two NIOSH epidemiological studies conducted in 1989. A broad range of potential risk factors and symptoms/disorders was investigated via questionnaires and/or physical examinations of 533 people in the telecommunications industry (mean age 37 years) and nearly 1,050 people (mean age 39 years) employed with the newspaper industry. The majority of the subjects were female: 71% for the telecommunications industry and 56% for the newspaper. A greater distinction between UE disorders and UE symptoms was made by the telecommunications industry, in which a UE disorder was classified by a questionnaire and a physical examination, and a UE symptom was defined by responses to the questionnaire alone. UE disorders were defined by only a questionnaire for the survey in the newspaper industry, but the criteria for a UE disorder remained essentially the same for both industries. Tendon related symptoms in the hand/wrist area were the most commonly reported symptoms among workers employed in telecommunications or publishing companies. Of particular interest were the psychosocial factors which may have contributed to the development of musculoskeletal disorders among VDT employees, including greater workload pressure and increased time working under deadlines. Despite the possible biases which may have skewed the results of the studies (study design, disorder misclassifications, and exposure misclassifications), the authors suggest that the combination of psychosocial elements with physical factors remains a crucial determinant for UE musculoskeletal disorders.

Keyboard-operators; Work-environment; Epidemiology; Psychological-factors; Musculoskeletal-system-disorders; Newspapers; Cumulative-trauma-disorders; Communication-workers;

19930101

Conference/Symposia Proceedings;

Luczak H; Cakir A; Cakir G;

1993

Musculoskeletal-system-disorders

Work with Display Units 92, Selected Proceedings of the Third International Scientific Conference on Work with Display Units, Berlin, Germany, September 1-4, 1992

ME