Health Hazard Evaluation Report HETA 85-452-1698, AT and T, Southern Bell and United Telephone, North Carolina

摘要

A request was made by the Communication Workers of America to investigate an excessively high frequency of reported chest pain among its members at AT and T, Southern Bell, and United Telephone (SIC-4811) in North Carolina. Data collected by an earlier questionnaire survey intended to evaluate stress among video display terminal (VDT) users were reanalyzed. Of 2,478 persons originally mailed the questionnaire, 839 had responded to the questions regarding VDT use and chest pain; of these, 78 reported anginal pain as defined by the Rose criteria. The frequency of chest pain increased both with increasing amount of time spent on the job at a video display terminal (VDT) and with decreasing job control. Two major limitations of the survey restrict its usefulness in the interpretation of chest pain and associated conditions, specifically anginal pain with VDT use or low job control. First, the response rate was less than 35% and bias must be a serious concern. Secondly, it was not clear that the questionnaire measured anginal pain.