Office characteristics and dry eye complaints in European workers. The Officair study

Objectives: Ocular discomfort is a prevalent health complaint in offices. It is hypothesized that, in
addition to individual and occupational factors, the buildings' indoor environment may affect eye
complaints. However, insight in potential building-related causal factors, needed to allow development
of effective prevention strategies in building design, operation and maintenance is limited. This study
aimed to investigate the relations between modern office building characteristics and dry eye
complaints.
Methods: Comprehensive characteristics of 167 office buildings in eight European countries, were linked
to questionnaire data from 7441 office workers. Multilevel modeling was applied to explore relations
between building characteristics and self-reported dry eye complaints, in a cross-sectional study.
Results: Among office workers investigated, 34% declared dry eye complaints during the past four weeks.
Majority of workers (91.2%) experiencing these symptoms, reported improvement on days away from the
office. After full adjustment, the regression model revealed a significant increased risk for: proximity
(<100 m) to potential sources of outdoor air pollution (OR: 1.41, 95% CI: 1.06e1.88), absence of operable
windows (OR: 1.70, 95% CI: 1.34e2.16), portable humidifiers in the offices (OR: 1.58, 95% CI: 1.18e2.11),
exposed concrete and/or plaster (OR: 1.29, 95% CI 1.02e1.62) and dispersion and/or emulsion paint as
wall covering in offices (OR: 1.20, 95% CI: 1.01e1.41). A negative association was found for cleaning
surfaces at least once per week (OR: 0.75, 95% CI: 0.61e0.91).
Conclusions: Building characteristics were associated with dry eye complaints of office workers. Focused
studies are recommended to investigate underlying causes to prevent these symptoms.