Display Screen Work: Does training help?

The research examined the effect of certain aspects of the 1992 Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations on users' reports of comfort at work. We used a sample of anonymous questionnaires covering 800 display screen users. The data sets provided good coverage of a range of different job types, different sized organisations, industry sectors and geographical areas. All of the questionnaires post-dated the introduction of the 1992 Regulations.

The most striking result was that when the data for trained and untrained display screen equipment users were analysed separately, it was found that the group of users who had received ergonomics training reported much lower levels of discomfort. In our sample, 416 people reported that they had received training on the ergonomics issues which were relevant to working with display screen equipment, such as associated risks, breaks and work patterns.

Top five symptoms of discomfort

1. Fatigue
2. Neck discomfort
3. Shoulder discomfort
4. Focusing difficulties
5. Discomfort in the hands or fingers

Top five environmental complaints

1. Quality of the air/Stuffiness
2. Overall temperature in the room
3. Space for storage
4. Draughts
5. Reflections

We compared their reports of discomfort and satisfaction with 380 display screen equipment users who had not received any training. We found that the untrained group was much more likely to report symptoms of visual and musculoskeletal discomfort and stress than the trained group. Furthermore, trained users reported lower levels of discomfort on nearly all of the measures investigated. It was also interesting that the untrained users appeared to be most concerned about risks that we believe are media-driven, such as "RSI-like" symptoms and those related to visual fatigue. Regulations 6 and 7 of the 1992 Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations require employers to provide information and training for DSE users, and this finding provides strong justification for this. It also confirms the major benefits of ergonomics training that our clients have been reporting for some time.

Other findings included high levels of dissatisfaction with aspects of the working environment. Three out of the top four worst ratings were related to the thermal environment, with over 50% of users highly dissatisfied with temperature and air quality, and 36% highly dissatisfied with draughts. In addition, our respondents rated reflections, glare and overall light levels at 5th, 6th and 8th worst positions respectively. 40% of the sample of respondents reported that they were frequently dissatisfied with space for storage. These high levels of dissatisfaction show that organisations could improve productivity by paying attention to some simple-to-change aspects of the working environment.
-- Tanya Heasman