Digital eye strain - who's at risk?

DIGITAL EYE STRAIN – WHO’S AT RISK?

Anyone in front of a digital screen is at risk, regardless of age, occupation or lifestyle. While certain factors can increase the possibility of digital eye strain symptoms, generally speaking, people who spend more than two hours a day on computers or other digital media devices should take a second look at their computer use, think about how their eyes and vision feel when using computers and other digital devices and think about taking steps to fight eye strain, visual fatigue and computer vision syndrome.

 

People use digital devices for many hours every day for fun and for work.  And both work and recreation are made more difficult, painful, uncomfortable and less enjoyable because of digital eye strain.  Optometrists that treat this problem are often blessed with the reward of making an immediate, important and significantly positive impact on a patient’s daily life.

SYMPTOMS OF DIGITAL EYE STRAIN and COMPUTER VISION SYNDROME

• Eye redness or irritation can result from staring at the bright backlight of screens for a long period of time.

•  Dry eyes can be caused by the fact that we blink less when looking at digital screens. Dryness can also result from computer screens that are set at eye level.  

•   Blurred vision.  This can be caused by screen glare and the right computer eye-wear can reduce it. The ill effects of glare increase with bright overhead lights, older computer monitors, dirty screens, and outside sun light entering the computer area.

• General visual fatigue is common when using digital devices, especially ones with small screens like iPhones because it results from straining to see small fonts and images. Properly prescribed computer frames and lenses can help significantly with this problem.

• Back pain and neck pain can occur because of poor body posture when a screen is not positioned properly. Many doctors prescribe computer eye-wear with a certain lens that will bring the computer image closer to the eyes and reduce bank and neck pain.

• Headaches can be caused by repeated eye strain.  The easiest way to avoid this is the seek the right eye-wear from your doctor of optometry that are designed to fight eye strain and have lenses custom prescribed and designed for your digital behavior patterns and your eye and facial anatomy.  Precision and accurate measurement is key.

In a survey of nearly 10,000 adults, ages 18 and older, the Vision Council identified digital use trends trends by gender, age and lifestyle.

GENDER:

Women are more likely than men to experience problems associated with digital eye strain.  About one third of women report eye strain and neck and shoulder pain, and at least one in five women has suffered dry eyes (24 percent), blurred vision (22 percent) and headaches (23 percent).

Men and women report similar use of digital media devices. Women are slightly higher consumers of smartphones, tablets and laptops, while men report higher regular use of desktop computers and video game systems.  Gender doesn't appear to affect usage; men and women both average about four to six hours daily, and 10 percent of men and women report 12 or more hours daily of digital media use. Both men and women say recreation (e.g., video games, computer games and sport channels) is their primary reason for using digital media devices.

AGE:

Digital eye strain symptoms are common in adults under 55. But adults ages 45 and older are 14 percent to 23 percent less likely to experience headaches than are younger people.  This may be due to the fact that people from different generations prefer different types of digital media .

The most popular digital device for all ages is still television.  Adults under 35 are more likely than other ages to use devices like laptops (76 percent), smartphones (66 percent), video games (49 percent) and tablets (30 percent).

Individuals 55 and older are less likely than other ages to use laptops (52 percent), smartphones (22 percent), video games (10 percent) and tablets (20 percent).

Regardless of age, the majority of adults use digital media four to six hours a day.  For about 14 percent of young adults (ages 18-34), average usage is more than 12 hours daily.

Recreation is the main reason for digital media use across age groups. However, mid-career adults (ages 35-55) report higher use for work and business-related reasons.

LIFESTYLE:

People who use digital media for work are more suffer digital eye strain more than any other lifestyle group –

39% of them have eye strain, 42% have neck and shoulder pain, 25% have dry eyes and 23% have

blurred vision.    The reason for this higher incidence of symptoms is pretty obvious - they spend more time than other groups working on digital devices.  Among work-related digital devices users, more than 30 percent spend at least six hours a day, and 20 percent spend and incredible 10 to 12 hours a day working on a digital device.

Read the entire report on digital eye strain here.

Related posts:

Yoga fights computer vision syndrome and keeps your eyes healthy
Sep 13, 2012

Your iPhone can be a pain in your eye
May 26, 2012

Three million Canadians suffer from computer vision syndrome
Feb 19, 2012


How the iPad can wreck your vision and what to do about it
Mar 15, 2012

Reading glasses are not just for people over 40 anymore

Reading glasses aren’t just for people over 40 anymore, reports a CBS affiliate in Chicago.

All our texting, ebook-reading, ipad use and other small screen viewing is messing with our vision.
Dr. Valerie Kattouf, chief of pediatric optometry at the Illinois Eye Institute, says more of her young patients need reading glasses.“I see it in school-age kids. I see it in older school-age kids – the teenagers – and I see it a lot in young adults of working age, you know, 20s and 30s,” Kattouf said.Kattouf says it is not just the fault of small cell phone screens and tablet computers. That on top of homework and reading – whether print or online – can lead to focus problems.
“The intensity of the near work without any kind of breaks or attention to what that does to you,” she said.She says young people have always had vision problems, but she thinks the increase in the amount of time they spend doing what she calls “close work” is leading to more problems with far-sightedness.Kattouf suggests limiting screen time and taking frequent breaks to look off in the distance in order to rest your eyes.
That's good advice.  An easy way  to remember is to think of the 20/20 rule: if you want to maintain your 20/20 vision, make sure that every twenty minutes, you take a break and look into the distance for at least 20 seconds. 

The impact of the digital revolution on our vision is becomming more prevalent as more people join the digital device generation and, not surprisingly, it is getting more attention in the media.  The New York Times had an article on Computer Vision Syndrome recently.  To learn more about Computer Vision Syndrom and visual fatigue and what you can do about it, click here.

Technology-related vision problems are fast becomming a major segment of the vision disorders that the Vision Source Vancouver optometrists deal with every day.  We have solutions to prevent the problem, to fight visual fatigue and discomfort and to make vision the best that it can be when interacting with digital screens.

And a note on reading glasses.  If you read my previous post, you will note that if you need reading glasses, it's better to stay away from the ready-made readers that you get from a drug store or book store because, more likely than not, they don't measure up to optical standards.