Prevalence of Dry Eye Syndrome after a Three-Year Exposure to a Clean Room

Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine

Seong Sil Chang¹  Soo Young Kim¹  Jong Seok Lee¹  Jae Jung Cheon¹  Hyun A Cho¹ 

[1]Department of Occupational & Environmental Medicine, Eulji University Hospital, Daejeon, South Korea

关键词: Tear film;    Clean rooms;    Humidity;    Dry eye syndromes;   

Others  :  1082164
DOI  :  10.1186/s40557-014-0026-z

 received in 2014-01-29, accepted in 2014-08-11,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

Objective

To measure the prevalence of dry eye syndrome (DES) among clean room (relative humidity ≤1%) workers from 2011 to 2013.

Methods

Three annual DES examinations were performed completely in 352 clean room workers aged 20–40 years who were working at a secondary battery factory. Each examination comprised the tear-film break-up test (TFBUT), Schirmer’s test I, slit-lamp microscopic examination, and McMonnies questionnaire. DES grades were measured using the Delphi approach. The annual examination results were analyzed using a general linear model and post-hoc analysis with repeated-ANOVA (Tukey). Multiple logistic regression was performed using the examination results from 2013 (dependent variable) to analyze the effect of years spent working in the clean room (independent variable).

Results

The prevalence of DES among these workers was 14.8% in 2011, 27.1% in 2012, and 32.8% in 2013. The TFBUT and McMonnies questionnaire showed that DES grades worsened over time. Multiple logistic regression analysis indicated that the odds ratio for having dry eyes was 1.130 (95% CI 1.012–1.262) according to the findings of the McMonnies questionnaire.

Conclusions

This 3-year trend suggests that the increased prevalence of DES was associated with longer working hours. To decrease the prevalence of DES, employees should be assigned reasonable working hours with shift assignments that include appropriate break times. Workers should also wear protective eyewear, subdivide their working process to minimize exposure, and utilize preservative-free eye drops.

【 授权许可】

   
2014 Cho et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

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