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Status of ocular health and binocular vision among children using digital devices: a cross-sectional study
Nabin Pahari1, Anusha Regmi2, Hari Bahadur Thapa3
1Department of Intensive Care, Mercy City Hospital, Butwal, Nepal.
Background:
With the advancement of technologies, there is an increase in the usage of electronic devices like computers, tablets, and smartphones for both vocational and avocational purposes. This causes an increased effort for near vision, which ultimately leads to increased accommodation/convergence and decreased, infrequent blinking. Digital eye strain is a manifestation of evaporative dry eye caused by a decreased, incomplete blink rate, leading to ocular surface compromise, and asthenopic symptoms caused by problems of accommodation and convergence. This study aims to assess the status of ocular health and binocular vision among children using digital devices.
Materials And Methods:
A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 106 children aged 9-18 years at the pediatric and strabismus department of Lumbini Eye Institute and Research Centre, Rupandehi, Nepal. All the children underwent detailed ophthalmic and binocular vision examinations. Schirmer II was performed as a quantitative test for the evaluation of dry eye. Subjects were asked about the types of digital devices they use, the amount of time they spend on them every day, how long they have been using digital devices, and the visual symptoms they experienced at the end of the day.
Results:
The prevalence of computer vision syndrome (CVS) was 86.8%. Headache was the most common symptom reported. CVS-related symptoms were not statistically associated with the hours of usage of a digital device (P = 0.092). However, the symptoms were statistically significant with age (P = 0.001). The prevalence of non-strabismic binocular vision anomalies was 76.4%. Our study shows vergence anomalies were higher than accommodative anomalies, with convergence insufficiency (39.6%) being the most prevalent. Dry eyes were reported in 48.1% of the subjects. Females were found to be more affected by dry eye than males (P = 0.013).
Conclusion:
This study suggests that there is a greater prevalence of CVS and convergence insufficiency in children using digital devices.
