Computer Vision Syndrome among Patients Attending the Outpatient Department of Ophthalmology in a Tertiary Care Centre: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study

INTRODUCTION: Computers and digital electronic devices have become an integral part of life. These devices have adverse effects and nowadays are considered leading occupational hazards. Computer vision syndrome comprises of all the ocular, visual and musculoskeletal symptoms secondary to long term computer use. The objective of this study is to determine the prevalence of computer vision syndrome among people attending the outpatient department of ophthalmology in the tertiary care center in Nepal. METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional study was done among 70 patients in a tertiary care hospital from January 2017 to June 2017 after obtaining ethical approval from the institutional review committee (Ref: 12042017). Convenient sampling method was applied and the point estimate at 95 % confidence interval was calculated along with frequency and proportion for binary data. Patients using computers for more than one hour were included in the study. All data were entered in Microsoft Excel and analyzed using statistical package for social sciences version 20. RESULTS: Among 70 patients, 67 (95.7%) (87.9-99.1 at 95% confidence interval) had one or more symptoms on computer use. The mean duration of computer use was 7.5±5.4 years and average hours of computer use among computer users were 6.9±3 hours. The most common symptom among computer users was headache seen in 46 (62.2%) patients. CONCLUSIONS: Our study showed that a significant number of people using a computer develop one or more symptoms on the long-term use of the computer. Therefore, it is very important to create awareness regarding computer vision syndrome and methods to prevent it among computer users.