Susana Martínez Alcántara
Silvia Tamez González
Luis Ortíz Hernández
Ignacio Méndez Ramírez
The results are presented here of a research study carried out at a newspaper establishment in Mexico City to discover the relationship between working conditions and damage to health. The study was transversal, an epidemiological questionnaire being applied to 218 workers. The main hazards and demands to which the workers were subjected in the course of their work were investigated, as was also the presence or not of elements deriving from control of the work which would make it qualitatively more enriching, and whether or not the workers received social support from co-workers and bosses. This set of variables was studied in relation to some health problems such as eye disorders (eye fatigue and neurovisual fatigue), disorders resulting from repetitive strain (in the upper limbs and hands), body pain syndrome, mental psychosomatics and dermatological disorders and fatigue. Among the principal results the two most important conditions related to various different disorders were identified as overcrowding and uncomfortable poitions, the statistical association being as much as p <0.001. The analysis of synergetic and additive effects showed that the interaction between the elements of work content were statistically associated. Such was the case of excess work in overcrowded conditions, which interact synergetically with fatigue and repetitive strain disorders in upper limbs and hands, with p <0.05.
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