Background: People spend many times a day at work and they mostly do their work using computer. Today, computers are an integral part of the workplace, especially in office environments. The purpose of present study is to explore visual discomfort among office staff of Tehran university of Medical Sciences. Methods: This is a cross-sectional analytical study and was done in 2012. Sample size was determined 150 people by simple random sampling. Data collection methods in our study were two questionnaires including demographic information questionnaire and Conlon questionnaire that is applied for measuring visual discomfort. Using SPSS.18, descriptive statistics (like frequency counts, percentage distributions) and inferential statistics like Pearson correlation coefficient, student's T-test and variance analysis were done for data analysis. Results: Results showed that 70% of subjects had the medium visual discomfort. It was found a significant correlation between visual discomfort and age and work experience (Pearson test: r=0.181 and Pvalue=0.042) and also there was a statistically significant relationship between visual discomfort and sex and education level (chi- square test: Pvalue=0.025). Conclusion: it is obvious that working with computer affected on visual comfort of office staff and it leaded to decrease visual comfort among them. Hence it is necessary for prevention of visual discomfort or/and exacerbating visual impairments to improve the lighting systems and teach the correct procedures of working with computer.

Keywords: Visual discomfort, Human– computer interaction, Conlon questionnaire

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