Non-Specific Symptoms in Office Workers: A Review and Summary of the Epidemiologic Literature

Details

• Personal Author:
  Mendell MJ
• Description:
  Epidemiologic studies on nonspecific symptoms reported in office workers were considered, including methodology. The report reviewed the findings of 32 studies of 37 factors potentially related to office worker symptoms. Consistent findings associated increased symptoms with air conditioning, carpets, more workers in a space, use of video display terminals, and ventilation rates at or below 10 liters per second per person. Studies which had particularly strong designs noted decreased symptoms associated with a high ventilation rate, short term humidification, negative ionization, and improved office cleaning. However, the findings for humidification and ionization were inconsistent. Studies which were relatively strong in design associated high temperature and low relative humidity with increased symptoms, while less strong studies were not consistent in this regard. Generally consistent findings associated increased symptoms with female gender, job stress/dissatisfaction, and allergies/asthma. Findings were too inconsistent or sparse for current interpretation for other environmental or personal factors. The author concludes that work related symptoms among workers in the office were relatively common and that many of these symptoms could be prevented through changes in office conditions. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Air Pollution, Indoor Environmental Health Environmental Monitoring Occupational Health Safety Temperature Ventilation Workplace
• Keywords:
  Air-quality-monitoring Indoor-air-pollution Indoor-environmental-quality Office-equipment Office-workers Temperature-effects Ventilation-systems Work-environment
• ISSN:
  0905-6947
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  227-236
• Volume:
  3
• Issue:
  4
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00238257
• Citation:
  Indoor Air 1993 Dec; 3(4):227-236
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1994
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  Indoor Air
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:89170c53d041741b7dd628edffb07e269173f59ad867a1a0ab36989e724c245f17e80bb88bd42706e7422ff94d2e678f741e7f3490f3f2fa529126a878c9c227
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/197912/cdc_197912_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.11 MB ]