Abstract
PurposeAmong computer workers, visual complaints, and neck pain are highly prevalent. This study explores how occupational simulated stressors during computer work, like glare and psychosocial stress, affect physiological responses in young females with normal vision.MethodsThe study was a within-subject laboratory experiment with a counterbalanced, repeated design. Forty-three females performed four 10-min computer-work sessions with different stress exposures: (1) minimal stress; (2) visual stress (direct glare); (3) psychological stress; and (4) combined visual and psychological stress. Muscle activity and muscle blood flow in trapezius, muscle blood flow in orbicularis oculi, heart rate, blood pressure, blink rate and postural angles were continuously recorded. Immediately after each computer-work session, fixation disparity was measured and a questionnaire regarding perceived workstation lighting and stress was completed.ResultsExposure to direct glare resulted in increased trapezius muscle blood flow, increased blink rate, and forward bending of the head. Psychological stress induced a transient increase in trapezius muscle activity and a more forward-bent posture. Bending forward towards the computer screen was correlated with higher productivity (reading speed), indicating a concentration or stress response. Forward bent posture was also associated with changes in fixation disparity. Furthermore, during computer work per se, trapezius muscle activity and blood flow, orbicularis oculi muscle blood flow, and heart rate were increased compared to rest.ConclusionsExposure to glare and psychological stress during computer work were shown to influence the trapezius muscle, posture, and blink rate in young, healthy females with normal binocular vision, but in different ways. Accordingly, both visual and psychological factors must be taken into account when optimizing computer workstations to reduce physiological responses that may cause excessive eyestrain and musculoskeletal load.
Highlights
Computers and other electronic devices are widely used during both occupational and leisure activities
There were negative associations between the participants’ heart rate and blink rate in Visual and psychological stress (VPS). This indicates that a rise in heart rate was accompanied with both reduced blink rate and trapezius blood flow, as well as with increased blood pressure and perceived stress during computer work
Heart rate decreased throughout testing from the first to the last condition, indicating that the participants were more stressed at the start of the test procedure than they were towards the end, independent of condition order
Summary
Computers and other electronic devices are widely used during both occupational and leisure activities. International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health (2018) 91:811–830 optimization of visual conditions to prevent both visual and musculoskeletal discomfort among computer workers. Based on an evolutionary stress model, Fostervold et al (2014), described the link between vision, oculomotor factors, and the musculoskeletal system as adaptive and functional. In this model, a key element is the notion of evolutionarily-novel environments: environments departing from those for which the human species has developed specific phenotypic adaptations. A key element is the notion of evolutionarily-novel environments: environments departing from those for which the human species has developed specific phenotypic adaptations Such adaptations may seem functional, ongoing efforts to cope in evolutionarynovel environments may give rise to new problems. Subjective complaints and ailments associated with computer work are in this context seen as a mismatch between speciesspecific adaptations to vision at close distance and demands imposed by the computer work environment (Fostervold 2003; Fostervold et al 2006; Lie et al 2000)
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