Symptoms of ocular surface disease in construction workers: comparative study with office workers

Abstract

Background: To investigate and contrast the prevalence of dry eye symptoms in construction workers and office workers using the OSDI questionnaire. Methods: A cross-sectional, observational study was conducted using the OSDI questionnaire to evaluate dry eye symptoms and associated risk factors. Sampled size calculation with a power of 80% and a 95% degree of confidence suggested the inclusion of 298 participants. Results: We studied 304 subjects (149 construction workers and 155 office workers). More than half (55%) of the participants presented dry eye symptoms (OSDI > 12). The average OSDI score was 21.30 ± 22.20 points, being lower in the group of construction workers (12.45 ± 17.50) than in-office workers (28.51 ± 22.99) (p < 0.001). Considering participants who had moderate and severe symptoms (23 to 100 points in OSDI), office workers presented dry eye symptoms 4.15 times more frequently than construction workers (OR 4.15, 95% CI 2.52, 6.85). Women presented statistical evidence of higher OSDI scores than men (32.47 ± 23.72 vs. 14.87 ± 18.48, respectively). Conclusions: construction workers have four times less risk of presenting dry eye symptoms than people working in the average office space. This highlights the pernicious effects on the ocular surface of the office environment, which poses a significant risk for the development or worsening of dry eye symptoms.

Prevalence of dry eye and Meibomian gland dysfunction in Central and South America: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“… 27 Mean: 27.8 SD: 2.1 n.r Sanchez-Valerio, 2020 [ 30 ] CVS Mexico Office workers at the Autonomous University of Puebla Puebla, Mexico Population-based epidemiological study (local) Sampling scheme—unspecified; (n.r.) 54.6 Mean: 32.1 SD: 7.8 Range: 18 – 45 n.r Hernandez-Llamas, 2020 [ 29 ] DED Mexico Office workers at Universidad de Monterrey (UDEM) rectory office and construction workers at a new UDEM campus module Monterrey, Mexico Single institution clinic or hospital-based study (local) Sampling scheme-random sampling; (n.r.) Construction workers 1.3 Office workers 70.3 Construction workers Mean: 35.12 SD: 10.63 Office workers Mean: 33.03 SD: 9.77 n.r Student populations Garza-Leon, 2016 [ 39 ] DED Mexico All undergraduate and graduate students officially registered at University of Monterrey for the academic year 2014–2015 Monterrey, Mexico Single institution clinic or hospital-based study (local) Other—voluntary response sampling; (95.7%) 59.8 Mean: 21.38 SD: 1.79 n.r Cartes, 2021 [ 37 ] CVS, DED Chile University students from different universities all over Chile who moved their classes online due to the COVID-19 pandemic Nationwide, Chile Population-based epidemiological study (national) Sampling scheme—unspecified; (27.1%) 65 …”

“… M TBUT e 123 70 56.9, 95%CI* 47.7, 65.8 Corneal staining f 123 30 24.4, 95%CI* 17.1, 32.9 Schirmer I test g 123 0 0, 95%CI* 0, 2.9 § Meibomian gland dysfunction h 123 28 22.7, 95%CI* 15.7, 31.2 Sanchez-Valerio, 2020 [ 30 ] CVS Symptoms; signs Symptoms (questionnaire) d 108 86* 79.7, 95%CI* 70.8, 86.7 Point: n.r ¶ Other—computer exposure degree; † Other—computer exposure times; ‡ n.r. M TBUT e 108 105* 97.2, 95%CI* 92.1, 99.4 Ocular surface staining i 108 48* 44.4, 95%CI* 34.8, 54.3 Schirmer I test j 108 29* 26.9, 95%CI* 18.8, 36.2 Hernandez-Llamas, 2020 [ 29 ] DED Symptoms Symptoms (questionnaire) d Construction workers 149 Construction workers 53 Construction workers 35.6, 95% CI* 27.9, 43.8 Period: October and December 2017 ¶ Age, sex, medical comorbidities (systemic disease), other–smoking status, contact lens use, computer hours/day, working hours/day, ocular disease, gender, sm...…”

“…Summaries of risk-of-bias assessments for the studies are presented in eTable 2 . In total eight studies were deemed moderate risk of bias [ 28 , 30 , 33 , 35 , 36 , 39 – 41 ] and six studies deemed high risk of bias [ 29 , 31 , 32 , 34 , 37 , 38 ]. None of the studies were determined to be representative of the national population.…”

“…Summaries of the associations with sex, age, ocular and medical comorbidities, and medication use are outlined in eTables 3 – 5 in the Supplement. Prevalence of dry eye appears to be associated with increased age (odds ratio [OR] range 1.04–2.02) [ 31 , 33 , 35 ], female sex (OR range 1.49–3.82) [ 29 , 31 , 33 , 35 , 37 , 39 , 40 ], contact lens use (OR range 1.12–4.67) [ 29 , 33 , 37 , 39 , 40 ], and smoking (OR range 1.24–1.44) [ 33 , 37 , 39 ]. While generally associated with increased dry eye prevalence, there is some inconsistent evidence regarding the direction of association with computer use (OR range 0.82–1.49) [ 30 , 33 , 37 , 39 ].…”

Dry eye symptoms using the Ocular Surface Disease Index in Sweden: a short report from a pilot study

“…The ocular surface disease index (OSDI, Allergan plc, Irvine, CA) questionnaire and the Dry Eye Questionnaire (DEQ-5) have been validated and are recommended by the TFOS DEWS II diagnostic methodology subcommittee (Dougherty et al, 2011;Schiffman et al, 2000;Wolffsohn et al, 2017). Even though the OSDI was developed for use in clinically controlled environments, it has been used in prevalence studies outside clinical settings to determine the occurrence of dry eye symptoms in the general population (Hernandez-Llamas et al, 2020;Schiffman et al, 2000). Allergan Inc. has developed a smartphone application which makes it possible to use the OSDI questionnaire remotely, which allows unlimited use of this symptomatology scale (Inomata et al, 2019).…”