Smartphone overuse and vision problems among university students

Abstract

The impact of smartphone on human health are still being tested and studied. This study estimates the effect of tiny screens of smartphones on eye defects such as myopia, Hyperopia, Astigmatism, Eye dryness and regarding the way which students in the college of science-Salahaddin University-Erbil use cellphones in their daily lives. In the first part of this study, the auto-refractometer device (21- 36111) have been used to test the eye refractive errors of 350 students (94 male,256 female). The student’s ages are about 18 (50 male,130 female) and 22 (44 male,126 female) years old and all the tests have been carried out at the medical physics laboratory in our department. Nearly, 46% and 40 % of the 18- and 22-years old students’ eyes respectively have been suffered from vision defects. In the second part, Schirmer's check was used to test dry eye disease (DED).  Among 112 students, 27%, 16%, 28.5%, and 28.5% of students have normal, mild, moderate, and severe eye dryness respectively. Overall, according to the above results and questionnaire survey, the eye problems caused by the smartphone tiny screens are related to the time duration which an individual spends in front of the smartphone’s screen and also the operation mode of the smartphone. The way students use smart devices, as well as their exposure to blue light from mobile devices like smartphones and laptops, increases the risk of visual disorders including emmetropia, particularly astigmatism, and even permanent eye damage.

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