Risk Management and Healthcare Policy (May 2017)
Effectiveness of a participatory eye care program in reducing eye strain among staff computer users in Thailand
Abstract
Sudaw Lertwisuttipaiboon,1 Tepanata Pumpaibool,1 Karl J Neeser,1 Ngamjit Kasetsuwan2 1College of Public Health Sciences, 2Department of Ophthalmology, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand Background: The increased usage of computers results in a variety of health problems, particularly eye strain, which is the most common workplace complaint today.Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a participatory eye care (PEC) program by comparing eye care knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP), as well as eye strain symptoms in staff computer users at Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University, Thailand.Methods: A participatory approach was held by organizing a meeting of 26 stakeholders to get opinions for developing the PEC program. The developed PEC program consisted of 3-hour training course on eye strain, rest breaks for 30 seconds every 30 minutes of computer use, and 15-minute rest break (in the morning and the afternoon) with integrated eye–neck exercises. Then, a quasi-experiment was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the PEC program. A total of 35 staff computer users enrolled in each of intervention and control groups for 8 weeks. Chi-square test and repeated measures analysis of variance were used for comparison of eye strain symptoms and the KAP scores.Results: The intervention was associated with reduction in percentage of eye strain. Significant differences were found between the intervention and the control groups at follow-up 1 (χ2=18.529, p-value <0.001) and follow-up 2 (χ2=18.651, p-value <0.001). The PEC program likely increased the beneficial effect on KAP scores between the groups and between times (p<0.05).Conclusion: The findings currently provide evidence to support a practical program developed through a participatory approach, which both researchers and computer users could apply to reduce eye strain. Keywords: participatory program, eye strain, computer users
