FUNCTIONAL STRESS AND ALTERATION OF THE OCULAR SURFACE IN SUBJECTS VIDEO DISPLAY TERMINAL (VDT)

ELEONORA MARGHERITA CHISARI, CLARA GRAZIA CHISARI*, SANTO DI NUOVO, GIUSEPPE CHISARI**

Department of Education - University of Catania, Italy - * Department Neurosciences , University of Catania, Italy - **Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences, University of Catania, Italy

The authors studied functional stress in subjects video display terminal (VDT) with alterations of the ocular surface. 40 subjects were admitted to the study video display terminal (VDT) (14 males and 26 females, mean age 67+/- 5 yr) with signs and symptoms of discomfort and/or dry eye (burning, foreign body sensation, dryness and itching), with Schirmer I less than 10 mm, with Break-up time Test (B.U.T.) lower at 8 seconds according to the Van Bijsterveld 1 criteria. A test “of perceived stress measurement” (MSP) was performed on all patients to assess the self-perceived stress aspects, “feeling stressed” derived from a widely held tool in the international arena, the Mesuredu Stress Psychologique( MSP). 40 healthy patients, workers, non-VDU operators as controls were also enrolled. The analysis of individual cluster showed a statistically significant difference between the two groups with regards to only the cluster 1 and 2 (p = 0.03 and p = 0.04, respectively). The correlation analysis showed that there is a positive correlation between the MSP and the number of shifts. Multivariate analysis that place as out as the main the presence or absence of clinically significant stress, found that, controlling for age and sex, the number of shifts and the presence of positive Schirmer test are two risk factors for the development of stress. An alteration of the ocular surface in (VDT) can easily trigger the chronic process of stress in the terminal operators video subjects with higher exposure to at least 2 hours with changes effectively bacterial microbiota of the ocular surface.