Iran Journal of Nursing

  Abstract

  Background and Aim: The use of computers has become mandatory for doing every kind of work in recent years, and fewer professionals can be found on which to perform the functions without computers. One of the most common complaints of computer users is ocular problems. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of ocular symptoms in computer users in one of Abadan oil companies.

  Material and Methods: It was a cross-sectional study which was performed on 199 computer users. Simple randomization was used to recruit the sample. The data was collected using demographic sheet and eye fatigue and workplace ergonomics questionnaire and was analyzed by descriptive statistics and Chi-square test using SPSS-PC (v.19). 

  Results: The sample consisted of 78 females and 121 males. Their age ranged between 30 to 40 years and their use of computers ranged between 21 to 40 hours a week. Frequent eye complaints of the users included, dim display (44.2 %), dizziness when looking at the monitor (41.2 %), tears and tearing eyes while working with the monitor (38.7 %), burning eyes, (38.2%) and feel eye dryness 38/2% respectively. There was significant relationships between the ocular complaints and age (P-value= 0.014), the number of hours of working with computers (P-value= 0.004), the position of chair (P-value= 0.03), working conditions (P-value= 0.001) and the position of monitors (P-value= 0.02).

 Conclusions: The results of this study revealed the high frequency of ocular symptoms in computer users and the impact of non-ergonomic conditions on the occurrence of these complaints and represented the necessity of modification of ergonomic conditions.

  Received: 10 March 2013

  Accepted: 10 Jun 2013