Peculiarities of informatics students working on the computer and its relationship to the health of Kaunas University of Technology

The aim of the research – to evaluate the peculiarities of informatics students working on the computer and its relationship to the health of Kaunas University of Technology. To achieve this aim the following objectives have been raised 1. To describe students’ working on the computer main indicators. 2. To assess students’ health complaints and computer interfaces. Methods of the present research. The subject of investigation is the students of the department of informatics of KTU (bachelor studies). Computer and health interfaces have been investigated by anonymous questionnaire survey. The study was carried out in the premises of Electronics House of KTU during lectures, seminars and breaks. There were taken 272 filled questionnaires (it matched the sample size). The taken data were processed by SPSS 21.0 program. In the present investigation there were compared the averages, calculated the coefficients of correlation and the ratios of odds. The results. The majority of time students spend at the weekend for their leisure at the computer, but at least – as well as the weekend but for the learning purposes. The groups of boys and lower course students had shown a higher proportion of leisure time. Most frequently students watch films (89,3 percent) at their leisure time while learning they use various programs (97,1 percent). Women are visiting online chat rooms and men and lower course students are playing games. The most of students are sitting to the table on their leisure. This pose was chosen by the majority of men and sitting on the top of another piece of furniture by ladies. There were revealed that 66,5 percent respondents feel eyesight, 64 percent skeleton – muscles, 9,2 percent face and neck skin symptoms and less than one – third of the respondents complained of nervous tension and headaches while working with the computer. Statistically, all the complaints (except for the face and neck skin) were more common among women and upper course students. The investigation had shown that students who used the computer less years had complaints about skeleton – muscles, face and neck skin. Students who felt complaints related with the usage of computer (except mental stress and headache) had assessed the ergonomics of workplace more poorly. Conclusions. The most important indicators of the frequency of computer work statistically differ in the aspect of sex than the course. There were shown that women comparing with men, reported a higher duration for learning purposes (while men – for leisure time), more often visited chat rooms (men played games) and had chosen the pose of “sitting on the top of another piece of furniture” (men had chosen sitting to the table). The most respondents feel eyesight and skeleton muscles complaints while working on the computer. Complaints onset risk group includes women and upper course students. In the present research there were identified that particular symptoms appearance is related to the lower evaluation of ergonomics and less experience in using computer