Computer Vision Syndrome Awareness Is High, But Risk-Reducing Behaviors Are Low

Despite a high awareness of computer vision syndrome (CVS) and its symptomatology among university students, many are not understanding the long-term health repercussions of CVS or performing preventative actions to mitigate their risk, according to research published in Clinical Optometry. 

Researchers included 310 students (mean [SD] age, 23.51 [5.42] years, 80% men) from a single university between November 2021 and February 2022. Students completed self-administered questionnaires during which they reported demographics, informational sources pertaining to CVS, and personal attitudes and practices towards reducing CVS risk. The research team evaluated the accuracy and completeness of the information reported by study participants. The majority of respondents were married (83.9%), lived in rural areas (86.5%), and were enrolled in their second year of study (33.3%). 

According to the report, 78.7%, 66.1%, and 11.6% of respondents received CVS information from social media, mass media, and family, respectively. Up to 70.3% of the participants were aware of CVS symptoms, and 23.2% and 6.5% had incomplete or incorrect knowledge, respectively. 

Over one third of the students had either a good (62.9%) or average (29%) total knowledge of CVS, while less than 15% had incorrect information. On average, 62.5% of the students engaged in behavior or activities to prevent or reduce CVS compared with 37.5% who did not. However, only 44% believed CVS represented a serious health threat.

In total, 65.2% of the students had a satisfactory total practice score. The study findings revealed that CVS knowledge is likely to be higher among students who are married or studying a medical discipline.  

“The results show that the awareness of CVS and its symptoms is acceptably good, but also that there is immense potential for improvement,” the researchers state. “This is particularly so in respect to the meaning of CVS, causes, prevention, and management, in which respect, incomplete or inaccurate information is unacceptably high.”

This research was limited by an overrepresentation of men in the study population and the use of convenience sampling.