The information technology and communication stressors impact on workers’ health

Abstract

The information, computer and communication technologies (ICT) impact on workers’ health is one of the actual interdisciplinary issues of modern science and practice. Numerous studies and observations have revealed negative impact of ICT on workers’ health. Just in Russia today about 40-45 million people employed in various fields of activity are at the ICT-risk group. The ICT negative impact on human body is manifested through the information technology and communication stressors (TICS). However, this impact’s mechanism requires to be clearer, and scientific results that have been already obtained on this issue should be summarized and evaluated now. The purpose of this research is to study the TICS impact on workers’ health by means of analyzing and systematizing modern researches’ results. The article reviews the scientific literature dealing with a «computer syndrome» and «information fatigue syndrome» which follow prolonged work with a computer, information and communication overloads. The article considers features of the TICS impact on various components of workers’ health. We have found that main sources of the TICS occurrence include direct computer effects (radiation, noise, etc.), stressful conditions of work with information, destructive information content, information pollution and compelled communications. The TICS results include a wide range of functional health disorders and diseases. The article contains analysis of the TICS impact’s mechanism, which can be generally represented by an influence chain: the ICT use → the TICS occurrence → body tension → stress → functional health disorders → exhaustion → burnout → diseases. The research indicates burnout as the most important consequence of the information and communication risks impact, and as widely spreading today to various professional groups of workers. Relationship between the ICT and the burnout is also analyzed. The research’s practical significance is stipulated by a necessity to develop the hygiene of informatized and computerized labor due to increasing in health risks for citizens working with the ICT. Ethics. The study didn’t require the Ethics Committee resolution.