Monitor Viewing Distance for Younger and Older Workers

Rempel, Willms, Anshel, Jaschinski & Sheedy (2007) recommend 52–73 cm for eye distance to a computer monitor based on an experiment that manipulated viewing distance. Jaschinski (2002) found a preferred viewing distance of 63 cm. However, these and other studies of viewing distance used relatively small samples of young adults below age 40. In this study a representative sample of 206 university employees in two age ranges, <= 40 years and => 50 years, were observed in their offices at their computer workstations. Mean distance to the center of the screen was 68 cm (95% confidence interval: 66 to 71 cm). Regressions showed that factors such as gender, whether a lens was worn, type of monitor, monitor resolution, and monitor contrast ratio did not predict distance to screen. However, there was an age by job class interaction for viewing distances with younger faculty at 64 cm, older faculty at 71 cm, young staff at 73 cm and older staff at 67 cm. Reported eye strain was related solely to glare rating. Results indicate that monitor positioning guidelines are reasonable for older workers and that glare sources could be reduced in typical office environments.