Analysis of physiological effect of reading books by paper and electronic medium

Abstract

A digital book has become popular along with the popularization of electronic medium. It is needed that assessment of not only subjective assessment about readability or usability, but also objective assessment of psychosomatic health impact. The objective of this study is an objective assessment of physiological and psychological effects of reading books using electronic or paper medium. This paper focused on hemodynamic parameters. The measurement item was VAS and POMS as a psychological index and hemodynamics parameters as a physiological index. As a result, low vigorous and unreadable were significantly recognized (p < 0.05) in reading a book using an electronic medium comparing with a paper medium. Cardiovascular system became active coping because of sympathetic hyperactivity in the hemodynamic reaction. By contrast, using an electronic medium did not fit into stress coping. It was also found that parasympathetic nervous system enhanced with illegibility of the sentence and fatigue by usinig an electronic medium. For all of these results, it became identified a difference in a way to manage in physiologically with reading a book using an electronic and paper medium.