Prevalence of vitreous floaters in a community sample of smartphone users

To estimate the prevalence and risk factors for vitreous floaters in the general population.

An electronic survey was administered through a smartphone app asking various demographic and health questions, including whether users experience floaters in their field of vision. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to determine risk factors.

A total of 603 individuals completed the survey, with 76% reporting that they see floaters, and 33% reporting that floaters caused noticeable impairment in vision. Myopes were 3.5 times more likely (P=0.0004), and hyperopes 4.4 times more likely (P=0.0069) to report moderate to severe floaters compared to those with normal vision. Floater prevalence was not significantly affected by respondent age, race, gender, and eye color.

Vitreous floaters were found to be a very common phenomenon in this non-clinical general population sample, and more likely to be impairing in myopes and hyperopes.