ERGONOMIC ASSESSMENT OF WORK ENVIRONMENT OF COMPUTER USERS AND IT’S IMPACT ON THEIR HEALTH
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Date
2021
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DRPCAU, PUSA
Abstract
In today’s world majority of the people are using computer and it has made our life very much easier. As the whole world is passing through the COVID-19 pandemic, almost all the works are done though online using computer or laptop. It is estimated that at least 75 per cent of the works are done through the use of computer, but the people are unaware about the health consequences of the computer use. Working with computer may cause poor eyesight problems, musculoskeletal disorders, arthritis in fingers and computer stress injuries, which are caused by bad posture adopted by the users and sitting in one position for a prolonged period of time. Health problems of the computer users are mainly associated with the duration of computer use, improper computer workplace and the various environmental factors like positioning of computer screen, keyboard and mouse. In the coming year the figure of people working with computer is considerably increasing. So it is very much crucially important to identify the problems of computer use and to resolve soon rather than in an effort to eradicate the problems.
The present study was conducted in Dr.Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Kendriya Vidyalaya, Uma Pandey College and Block Office of Pusa Block, Samastipur, Bihar as there were a lot of active computer users. This research
was carried out to identify the musculoskeletal health problems and other computer related health problems. Therefore considering all the points the following objectives have been undertaken to study: to know the socio-economic and working profile of the computer users, to explore the anthropometric measurements and work environment of the computer users, to find out musculoskeletal disorders and other related problems of the computer users and to determine the effect of computer usage on health of the users.
Results from the study showed that half of the respondents were male and another half were female, among them majority of the users (48.33%) belonged to age group 20-30 years and (43.33%) belonged to age group 30-40 years. The results also revealed that majority of the respondents were post-graduate (75%) having monthly income more than RS. 20,000. More than 50 per cent of the Respondents (53.33%) were using spectacles and 66.67 per cent had placed their computer at an angle 450-600.
Majority of the computer users were working at average level of nature of work and 23.33 per cent of them had worked in poor level of nature of work. Respondents had faced neck pain (86.67%), eye pain (83.33%), lower back (51.67%), shoulder pain (40%), headache (36.67%), upper leg and lower leg (36.67%). Field experiment through Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) tool showed that 75 per cent of the computer users had medium risks and changes in their postures required soon.
Computer users had also experienced vision problems like eye watering (73.33%), double vision (70%), eye strain (55%), dry eyes (50%), difficulty in focusing (46.66%) and burning sensation (46.66%), while working with computer.
Variables like age, income, gender, education and work environment of the computer users were significant relation with the difficulty in eyes of the respondents and work environment of the users was inversely proportional to the difficulty in eyes of the respondents.
It was concluded that the work of the computer users was sedentary type which gradually develops chronic illness because of the bad postures adopted by the computer users, while performing their work on computer.