A Longitudinal Study of Work Characteristics and Health Complaints Among Insurance Employees in VDT Work

Abstract

Employees using visual display terminals (VDI) in their work in the head office and branch offices of a Finnish insurance company were followed for 8 years. Their job satisfaction and health complaints were studied in relation to VDT-use characteristics and job demands and stressors. A total of 144 employees participated 3 times in a questionnaire survey: in 1985 before a major change was implemented m the data system used just after its implementation in 1987, and later after the gradual increase of VDT application and enlargement of the data system in 1993. Most of the employees were women (65%) in customer service work. The original group of 477 decreased to these 144 employees during the follow-up due to employees leaving the company, moving to other departments, retiring, and nonresponding. The dropouts did not differ considerably from the retainees in the central variables of the study. The follow-up results showed an increase in the daily amount of VDT work and a better mastering of VDT applications. Only minor changes in job demands were found. A slight increase occurred between 1985 and 1987 in attention and psychomotor demands. The greatest increase was found in job insecurity between 1987 and 1993. The level of job dissatisfaction, psychological symptoms, and eye discomfort decreased somewhat, and neck and upper limb complaints increased between the two later study phases. The factors explaining job dissatisfaction and subjective symptoms were partly different in the 3 study phases. In the last study phase, job dissatisfaction was dependent on job insecurity, being earlier explained mainly by psychological and social job demands. Neck and upper limb complaints were in the beginning clearly related to high physical workload and later more directly dependent on VDT use characteristics.