Ocular symptoms in computers users - A clinical study

Background: Today computers are main and rapid source of information exchange and have become an indispensible piece of office equipment. As a result the computer users are increasing many folds with every passing year. Purpose: To assess the magnitude of ocular problems faced by computer users. Design: An observational study was conducted on people working for at least two hours or more per day on computer. Materials and methods: Individuals were assessed for their work related symptoms on a preset questionnaire and accordingly were classified into asymptomatic and symptomatic. Symptomatics were further divided into occasional, frequent or everyday symptoms. Results: Of 913 computer users of age group 16 to 40 years, 65.27% were males and 34.72% were females. 81.48% suffered from ocular symptoms of which 68.01% had occasional symptoms, 19.48% had frequent symptoms and 12.5% had regular symptoms. The symptoms were more pronounced in individuals working >6 hours on a computer. Conclusion: Ocular symptoms in computer users are directly proportional to the number of work hours on computer. Therefore proper knowledge of working on computers should be given to all as it will increase the work efficiency.