Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the ocular manifestation due to electronic devices on the eye during a lockdown and ocular symptoms due to excessive use of devices for education purpose.

Methods: A self-made questionnaire about qualitative and quantitative usage of the electronic devices was completed by students attending online classes during the quarantine phase of pandemic COVID 19. All the data were gathered and analyzed using a statistical package for social sciences (Version 22).

Results: A total of 500 students were responded to this survey. The most common usage devices among students were 60% mobiles phone, 20% for laptops, and 20% for other electronic devices. 75% of students had eye strain after using devices at day end followed by 25% of students who had no ocular discomfort. There is a strong relation (p = 0.05) between ocular manifestation and excessive use of the electronic device.

Conclusion: Eye health issues are emerging as electronic devices time increases for students due to institutes being closed and online mode of education started in the Covid-19 pandemic. As there is a strong association between usage of electronic devices (smartphones and laptops) and ocular manifestations including blurriness of vision, burning sensation in eyes, headache, and strain in eyes.

Keywords: Electronic Devices; Laptop; SmartPhones; Ocular Manifestations; COVID19; Quarantine; Pandemic; Survey

References

1. Shivangi Dhawan. “Online Learning: A Panacea in the Time of COVID-19 Crisis”. Journal of Educational System Technology 1 (2020).
2. Benedetto S., et al. “E-readers and visual fatigue”. PloS one 12 (2013): e83676.
3. Blehm C., et al. “Computer vision syndrome: a review”. Survey of Ophthalmology3 (2005): 253-262.
4. Klamm J and Tarnow KG. “Computer vision syndrome: a review of literature”. Medsurg Nursing2 (2015): 89.
5. Przybylski AK. “Electronic gaming and psychosocial adjustment”. Pediatrics3 (2014): e716-e22.
6. Rosenfield M. “Computer vision syndrome: a review of ocular causes and potential treatments”. Ophthalmic and Physiological Optics5 (2011): 502-515.
7. Lee H., et al. “The effect of home-based daily journal writing in Korean adolescents with smartphone addiction”. Journal of Korean Medical Science5 (2016): 764-769.
8. Moon JH., et al. “Association between video display terminal use and dry eye disease in school children”. Journal of Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus2 (2014): 87-92.
9. Portello J., et al. “Computer Vision Syndrome: Hard Copy versus Computer Viewing”. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science 13 (2009): 5333.
10. Kang Y-Y., et al. “Usability evaluation of e-books”. Displays 2 (2009): 49-52.
11. Lee D-S., et al. “Effect of light source, ambient illumination, character size and interline spacing on visual performance and visual fatigue with electronic paper displays”. Displays 1 (2011): 1-7.

Citation

Citation: Shua Azam., et al. “A Survey based Study: Usage of Electronic Devices and Ocular Manifestations during Quarantine (Covid-19) among Students".Acta Scientific Ophthalmology 4.5 (2021):28-31 .

Copyright

Copyright: © 2021 Shua Azam., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.