INFLUENCE OF HOURS OF COMPUTER USAGE ON STRESS IN SOFTWARE PROFESSIONALS

BACKGROUND: Stress in the workplace is becoming the most common complaint of the late 20th century employee. It is a costly, pervasive phenomenon in work organizations and many studies have been carried out in the west to investigate this area of human concern. India being the Information Technology (IT) hub with lakhs involved as IT Professionals, there is a need to assess prevalence of professional stress in this area. OBJECTIVE: To study the relationship between hours of exposure to computer and stress in IT professionals. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a crosssectional study conducted using stress questionnaire like Form X of the STAI (Spielberger, Gorsuch, & Lushene, 1970). This study was conducted specifically on 21 male professionals aged 34.52 +/- 7.85 yrs., working in an IT firm with the designation of a software engineer. STATISTICAL METHODS: Descriptive and inferential statistical analysis has been carried out in the present study. RESULTS: 52.4% of the subjects who worked for less than 8 hrs. /day with computers had stress score of 40.82 +/- 8.99. 47.65% of the subjects who were exposed to computers for more than 8 hrs./day had stress score of 46.30 +/- 10.01. This study revealed positive correlation between between hours of computer use and stress levels in these subjects (P= 0.008). CONCLUSION: We found positive associations between hours of computer use and stress levels in this cross-sectional study of IT professionals. Such high stress scores could hinder the progress of these IT professionals and could predispose them for the development of psychiatric disorders.