ABSTRACT
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has had a long-standing interest in the potential health effects of work with video display terminals (VDTs). Musculoskeletal disorders, in particular, have been of special concern (NIOSH, 1991). From the beginning, it was suspected that workrelated psychosocial factors contribute to the development of musculoskeletal disorders associated with VDT work. As a consequence, an assessment of psychosocial factors was incorporated into the study designs of three recent NIOSH Health Hazard Evaluations (HHEs) which assessed musculoskeletal disorders and their related risk factors among employees utilizing VDTs. While these three studies differed in numerous ways, a common aspect of each was a relatively broad-based assessment of job stress factors, often called job stressors, felt to have some potential involvement in the etiology of the musculoskeletal disorders. Using similar, and in some cases identical, multi-item measures, these studies assessed the potential contribution of such stressors as perceived job pressure, workload, workload variability, cognitive demands, job control, job security, hostility from clients, and electronic monitoring to musculoskeletal disorders. This chapter provides a summary of these three HHEs.
