Abstract
ObjectivesOcular discomfort is a prevalent health complaint in offices. It is hypothesized that, in addition to individual and occupational factors, the buildings' indoor environment may affect eye complaints. However, insight in potential building-related causal factors, needed to allow development of effective prevention strategies in building design, operation and maintenance is limited. This study aimed to investigate the relations between modern office building characteristics and dry eye complaints. MethodsComprehensive characteristics of 167 office buildings in eight European countries, were linked to questionnaire data from 7441 office workers. Multilevel modeling was applied to explore relations between building characteristics and self-reported dry eye complaints, in a cross-sectional study. ResultsAmong office workers investigated, 34% declared dry eye complaints during the past four weeks. Majority of workers (91.2%) experiencing these symptoms, reported improvement on days away from the office. After full adjustment, the regression model revealed a significant increased risk for: proximity (<100 m) to potential sources of outdoor air pollution (OR: 1.41, 95% CI: 1.06–1.88), absence of operable windows (OR: 1.70, 95% CI: 1.34–2.16), portable humidifiers in the offices (OR: 1.58, 95% CI: 1.18–2.11), exposed concrete and/or plaster (OR: 1.29, 95% CI 1.02–1.62) and dispersion and/or emulsion paint as wall covering in offices (OR: 1.20, 95% CI: 1.01–1.41). A negative association was found for cleaning surfaces at least once per week (OR: 0.75, 95% CI: 0.61–0.91). ConclusionsBuilding characteristics were associated with dry eye complaints of office workers. Focused studies are recommended to investigate underlying causes to prevent these symptoms.
Highlights
Y. de Kluizenaar et al / Building and Environment 102 (2016) 54e63 identified ocular discomfort amongst the most reported health complaints from office workers.There are indications that the prevalence of these symptoms may be related to circumstances inside the building, where occupational and/or environmental factors may play a role: have large differences been observed in symptom prevalence between office buildings [5]
This study provides data on the associations between selfreported dry eye complaints and a broad range of building characteristics, in the context of a large European office-worker population study, taking into account individual characteristics and occupational risk factors
The physical building characteristics that were identified to be associated with self-reported dry eyes, and are discussed hereafter, include: proximity (
Summary
Y. de Kluizenaar et al / Building and Environment 102 (2016) 54e63 identified ocular discomfort (including dry, irritated or itchy eyes) amongst the most reported health complaints from office workers.There are indications that the prevalence of these symptoms may be related to circumstances inside the building, where occupational and/or environmental factors may play a role: have large differences been observed in symptom prevalence between office buildings [5]. Y. de Kluizenaar et al / Building and Environment 102 (2016) 54e63 identified ocular discomfort (including dry, irritated or itchy eyes) amongst the most reported health complaints from office workers. Previous studies have indicated that a majority of respondents reporting these complaints, report that the symptoms tend to decrease in severity, or even completely disappear when away from the office building [1,2,6]. The etiology of ocular discomfort in office environments is multifactorial, and is expected to include individual, occupational and environmental risk factors [7]. These factors may exert effects additively or through complex interactions. Relations may be confounded or modified by aspects of the psychosocial environment [3,8e10]
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