Survey And Analysis On The Physical Condition Of Long-term Computer Users In Taiwan

BackgroundThe "Five Impairments" recorded in the ancient TCM text "Huangdi Neijing" refers to:Staring too long damages the blood, lying down too long damages the Qi, sitting too long damages the flesh, standing too long damages the bones and walking too long damages the tendons. In modern society, with the lifestyle change, the computer users have troubles with qi-blood circulation early and often. Sitting too long is easy to inhibit the movement of qi and blood of the whole body. Having the long-term poor posture of collapsed chest and humpback may induce respiratory dysfunction. Continuous lower limb flexion from sitting for long periods leads to reduction of muscle tone and muscle contractions, and then venous return obstruction may cause blood stagnancy and muscle soreness. Using a computer for a long period of time is easy to make the neck and shoulder muscle strained. If cervical rear muscles keep constantly stiff, cervical spondylosis will be caused because of chronic neck muscle strain. Long time concentration of computer monitor also easily results in dry-coarse eyes and even eyes disorders. For all these reasons, incidence of chronic diseases is growing rapidly. Taiwan has an island climate. Owing to different natural condition as well as evolution of life style and diet habit, there are group differences in physical condition. Traditional Chinese medicine offers a series of complete theories and methods for improving immune capability, physical abilities and emotional stability. TCM put emphasis on the importance of regulating daily life, diet and activities based on physical condition. With the help of health caring, the physical condition can be regulated and has a balance of yin and yang in order to resist illness.PurposeIn dealing with illness, it was put forward by Sun Simiao in Tang Dynasty that the best way is to improve the overall environment, the better way is to keep personal hygiene, and the ordinary way is to treat illness. According to this concept, there are three levels in disease development: The undiseased, the coming disease and the suffering from disease. A survey and analysis of physical condition is helpful to understand the physical changes and difference of the people with the evolution of life style and geographical environment. It can be an important guideline of the preventive medicine, disease treatment and health education. Further more, the survey results could be an invasive assessment tool in promoting the health strategies.MethodThis study focused on young people aged 20-30 who had 6-year experience of using computers and daily spent over four hours on computer in recent one year. A questionnaire survey was conducted among 58 people, and 57 questionnaires were available. The response rate reaches 98.3%. After all, the Traditional Chinese Medical Constitutional Scale set out by Professor Su Yi-chang was used to carry out data research and analysis.ConclusionThe results show that the two symptoms of qi-deficiency and yang-deficiency, within six symptoms, have the largest population means. It means that less movement and overindulgence of comfort may cause qi-damage. Furthermore, based on the theory of "motion is yang and stillness is yin", less movement leads to more yang-deficiency. In the female group, the symptoms of qi-deficiency, yang-deficiency and phlegm-damp have larger means. Compares to the female group, the male group got lower scores in the six symptoms. In all six symptoms, there were significant differences between the female and male groups. Tt is supposed to be related to menstruation.In the question of staying up late, the two symptoms of qi-deficiency and yang-deficiency, within six symptoms, have the largest population means. The circulation of qi and blood inside the twelve meridians runs to gallbladder meridian at 11:00pm-1:00am and liver meridian at 1:00-3:00am. Failure of liver to convey and disperse will result in stagnation of liver qi. Liver depression generates pathogenic fire and impairs yin blood. Staying up late consumes qi and injures yang. According to the theory of "sitting too long damages qi" recorded in "Huangdi Neijing", disorder of qi activity will damage acquired qi-spleen. Spleen-deficiency causes failure of manufacture qi or the blood. But, there was no statistically significances found in the six symptoms (P<0.05).In the question of having frozen products, the two symptoms of qi-deficiency and yang-deficiency, within six symptoms, have the largest population means. In Chinese medicine, frozen products (ice) are considered "cold foods", and "cold" is a kind of yin pathogen leading to damage to yang qi. Having property of coagulation and stagnation, cold pathogen will cause qi stagnancy, blood stasis and meridians obstruction. Frequently eating cold and raw food may easily cause damage of spleen yang and leads to internal cold. Spleen governs transportation and transformation. Spleen-deficiency will make spleen lose fortification and movement, and then cause dampness stagnancy and retention of phlegm and fluids. But, there was no statistically significances found in the six symptoms (P<0.05).