Health problems of data entry clerks and related job stressors

A study was made of health problems reported by data entry clerks working in two large data pools within the Québec Public Service Administration. In order to collect the data, 350 clerks answered a questionnaire, representing a return rate of 92%. The results indicate that, in comparison with women in other occupations, the data entry clerks have a high rate of occurrence of psychiatric symptoms (measured by the Ilfeld index) as well as a high degree of use of over-the-counter and prescription drugs. In addition, these two problems are more prevalent in full-time clerks than in part-time clerks. The psychiatric symptoms appear related to the combined influence of two main factors: work overload and the monotony of work specialization. A third factor, the quality of the relationships among workers in the pool, also seemed to affect the regular full-time clerks.