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Survey shows dry eye symptoms hamper office work
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Many survey participants reported a diagnosis of dry eye or dry eye-related symptoms, resulting in a negative impact on daily activities at work, according to researchers.
Two web-based surveys at three different office locations yielded 765 responses for this recently published study.
In survey A, more females participated compared with males. Almost one-third of participants reported that they had received a diagnosis of dry eye, and 80% of those received that diagnosis from their optometrist.
There was no significant gender difference in reported prevalence of diagnosed dry eye.
Participants reported that they experienced significantly more symptoms at work compared with at home, such as stinging, burning, itching, irritation, pain in the eye, photophobia, blurry vision and transient vision.
More than two-thirds of participants experienced some inhibition of their daily work activities from eye symptoms, with more than 5% experiencing symptoms most or all of the time, according to researchers.
In survey B, participants reported different factors as being responsible for their dry eye symptoms, including indoor climate, general health, work environment, and reading and computer use.
Nearly 70% of survey B participants had not consulted any of the listed professionals about their eye symptoms.
Less than 40% reported using any type of treatment; nearly 20% said they use artificial tears.
Females were more vulnerable to having eye-related symptoms linked to sick building syndrome, according to researchers.
Females reported higher levels of negative impact on their work productivity over the previous 7 days compared with males, but no difference was reported for non work-related daily activities over the previous 7 days.
Researchers noted that participants did not have access to local, adjustable light at their workplace, which is known to have a positive impact.
Also, they suggest that indoor climate can have a strong influence. The majority of participants felt that airflow, localized airflow, dry air climate conditions, allergens and environmental pollution exacerbated their discomfort. – by Abigail Sutton
Disclosure: The researchers report no financial disclosures.
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