The Effect of VDT Skill and Job Satisfaction Related to Co-workers for Mental Health when using VDT

Abstract

Introduction: With the spread of Visual Display Terminals (VDT) in work place, the influence of VDT work on mental health has been studied. In the previous studies, VDT skill was shown to have positive or negative effects on mental health. Job satisfaction, on the other hand, has been shown to decrease the stress reaction in the office, however not many studies have considered its relationship to mental health during VDT work. Hence this study attempt to clarify the relationship between VDT skill and job satisfaction related to co-workers (job satisfaction) on mental health when using VDT in the office Methods: VDT work stressor scale, VDT skill, job satisfaction related to co-workers and GHQ-28 were administrated to 203 workers (162 men, 39 women and sex unknown 2 with mean age±SD of 36.10±10.12) in Japan. VDT work stressor scale consisted of 15 items, including 3 sub scales of stress ('exchange of E-mail', 'troubles using VDT' and 'quantity of mail'). VDT skill was consisted of 11 items. Job satisfaction related to co-workers had 3 items. The original GHQ-28 was a self-report scale that consisted of 28 items measuring mental health, but in this study 21 items were selected. Result: Two-way analysis of variance with no repeated measures suggested that the relationship between job satisfaction and mental health was significant.; Anxiety and sleeplessness of in the high job satisfaction group were better than those of the lower job satisfaction group when 'exchange of E-mail', 'quantity of E-mail' and 'troubles using VDT' were stressors.; Depression in the high job satisfaction group was lower than that of the lower job satisfaction group when 'exchange of E-mail' was a stressor. On the other hand, the effect of VDT skill was not found. In addition, since no interaction was found as a result of the analysis of variance, it can be suggested that high job satisfaction is related directly to low stress reaction irrespective of the amount of stressors. Conclusion: The results of this study suggested that mental health during VDT work can be affected by the level of job satisfaction related to co-workers. On the other hand, no such relationship was found for VDT skill. From these results it may be suggested that creating relationship with co-workers is important as a stress management even when using VDT.