Facial Skin Symptoms in Office Workers: A Five-Year Follow-Up Study

This longitudinal study is a part of the interdisciplinary project The Office Illness Project in Northern Sweden, which was initiated with a questionnaire study in late 1988. Among 3233 visual display terminal (VDT) workers, an initial case-referent group of 163 individuals was selected. The data acquisition included two questionnaires, assessments at the workplaces, interviews with personnel staff of the organizations concerned, and a clinical examination of the respondents. Subjects participating in the case-referent study 1988 filled out a questionnaire in the beginning of 1994. The pnmary objective of this study is to discuss changes in and causes of facial skin symptoms among VDT workers in the long term. The results show that (1) facial skin symptoms among VDT workers seem to be of a transitory nature for most of those with isolated skin symptoms, whereas the prognosis for those with a more complex symptom picture is more negative, (2) assumptions that measures taken in the work environment—including those involving the VDT and other electric devices—would have a positive effect on symptoms were not supported, and (3) the strongest external risk indicators for lasting skin symptoms seem to be found in the psychosocia work environment. Therefore, one important issue for the understanding of facial skin symptoms is organizational climate and personnel policies. The results also imply that individual factors, both constitutional and psychological, must be considered.