Efficacy of acupuncture on VDT workers (1) / 全日本鍼灸学会雑誌

[Introduction]Recently, in the development of information technology, VDT workers are increasing rapidly. Physical and mental health symptoms associated with working at visual display terminals (VDTs) are controversial. However, there are few studies about the effect of acupuncture treatment on eye fatigue, neck and shoulder stiffness that many VDT workers have.<BR>Therefore, in this prospective study, we examined the effect of acupuncture treatment for complaints of VDT workers.<BR>[Methods]Sixty-one VDT workers participated as subjects (41 males, 20 females). Acupuncture sessions were performed once a week for four weeks. Acupuncture points were decided by the patient's muscleskeletal distress.<BR>Disposable press tack needles were used. Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) was used to determine eye fatigue, neck and shoulder stiffness. Improvements of each VAS were evaluated. Then we analyzed improvement on shoulder and neck stiffness associated with eye fatigue.<BR>[Results]The neck and shoulder distress of patients was reduced in four weeks by acupuncture treatment. A regular correlation between the improvement rate of eye fatigue and neck/shoulder stiffness was observed.<BR>[Conclusion]The neck and shoulder stiffness was improved by acupuncture treatment. According to improved symptoms, eye fatigue was mitigated as well. Thus it was suggested that utility of acupuncture is high in the field of industrial medicine.

Risk Factor, Job Stress and Quality of Life in VDT Workers with Low Back Pain

OBJECTIVE: To investigate symptom prevalence, risk factor, and relationship between job stress and health-related quality of life in visual display terminal (VDT) workers with low back pain. METHOD: 5,005 people aged from 28 to 59 without neck or upper extremity pain, were enrolled and their general characteristics, working period, personal history like smoking, drinking, type of leisure and average housework time were collected via a questionnaire survey. The job stress and the health-related quality of life were measured by using the Korean Occupational Stress Scale (KOSS) and the Korean Short Form Health Survey-36 (KSF-36) respectively. The relationship between general characteristics, working period, personal history, KOSS score, and KSF-36 score were statistically analyzed. RESULTS: The average age of questionnaire respondents was 43.4 years old. Twenty-seven and ninety-one (2,791) VDT workers responded to have experienced low back pain in past 1 year. The symptom prevalence was 58.2%. The KOSS score of all VDT workers was higher than reference range. There were moderate negative correlations between KOSS score and subscale score of KSF-36 like vitality, mental health, and mental component summary in all groups. In a multivariate analysis of all subjects, younger age, female, type of leisure except sports activity, and feeling of body loading were independently associated with low back pain of VDT workers. CONCLUSION: This study provides the basic data about the relationship between job stress and health-related quality of life of VDT workers as well as risk factors of low back pain in VDT workers.

Relationship between the Serum CPK and the Shoulder Muscle Disorder in VDT Workers / 대한산업의학회지

VDT workers are often exposed to static load in the shoulder stabilizing muscle due to repetitive work over long periods. Many investigations were reported the relationships between static load due to repetitive work and regional muscle disorder. However, diagnostic approach to work-related muscle disorder is difficult due to the absence of objective diagnostic tools. This study was performed to investigate the relationship between the serum CPK (creatine phosphokinase) concentrations and the shoulder muscle disorders. Results are as follow. 1. Mean serum CPK in total VDT workers was 67.6+/-28.4 IU/l and workers with abnormal serum CPK were 35 (21.5%). 2. Comparison between cases and controls did not show significant difference in the serum CPK level and the distribution of abnormal findings. 3. Sensitivity and specificity of the CPK test was 23.0% and 82.0%, respectively. Above results, in accordance with literatures, show that while serum CPK measure menu can be useful for the diagnosis of acute muscle injury, it does not adequately reflect the muscle disorders developed by the repetitive work of low tension over long time, such as VDT works.