[Specialist assessments and Law Decree 626/94 on operators employed at VDT/PCs]

Within the context of the health protection of employees working with monitors and personal computers, we evaluated the capacity of certain ophthalmologic tests, which can be used by corporate medical doctors even if they have not received specific ophthalmologic training, to identify ophthalmologic-visual conditions which should be referred to a specialist. 278 employees working with computers underwent a complete ophthalmologic test including contrast sensitivity, the red-green test, the dynamic acuity and the mesopic test. Two groups (with and without ocular pathologies) whose characteristics indicated the need of a specialist examination were then chosen, and the correlation and predictive capacities of the single tests or their combination was then evaluated with regard to the two groups. The model developed through a discriminating analysis vaunts a predictive sensibility above 95%, thus allowing to identify almost all persons in the sample group who should be referred to a specialist when used to identify those afflicted solely by refraction alterations, while it drops to 66% with a specific figure of 89% when non-refractive ocular pathologies coexist. The figures indicate that certain evaluation tests can be used to efficiently screen visual functionality by the corporate medical doctor. The authors offer suggestions on the need for a correct and carefully considered strategy to adopt for the screening of visual function.