FACIAL SKIN SYMPTOMS IN VISUAL-DISPLAY TERMINAL (VDT) WORKERS - A CASE-REFERENT STUDY OF PERSONAL, PSYCHOSOCIAL, BUILDING-RELATED AND VDT-RELATED RISK INDICATORS

Background. The Office Illness Project in northern Sweden, comprising both a screening questionnaire study of 4943 office workers and a case -referent study of facial skin symptoms in 163 subjects was recently c ompleted. Previously published results from the survey showed that fem ale gender, asthma/rhinitis, high psychosocial work load, visual displ ay terminal (VDT) and paperwork were related to an increased prevalenc e of facial skin symptoms. Methods. The case-referent study presented in this paper used data from the questionnaire supplemented by informa tion from a clinical examination, a survey of psychosocial factors at work, building data and VDT-related factors from inspection and measur ements taken at the work site. Results. Psychosocial conditions and ex posure to electromagnetic fields or conditions associated with such fa ctors were related to an increased occurrence of skin symptoms. The re sults also indicated that personal factors such as atopic dermatitis a nd physical exposure factors influencing indoor air quality, such as p aper exposure and cleaning frequency were related to an increased prev alence of symptoms. Conclusions. The results suggest that skin symptom s reported by VDT users have a multifactorial background.