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At what distance should digital devices be viewed?

Eye volume 38, pages 815–816 (2024)Cite this article

Subjects

Excess digital device use is reported to aggravate binocular vision disorders and asthenopic symptoms [1]. Viewing distances and font size parameters in these devices will determine the demand (i.e. accommodation and vergence) on the binocular vision system. Closer the viewing distance, higher is the demand. One could hypothesize, more asthenopic symptoms to be present for closer viewing distance and/or smaller font size. We undertook a study to test this hypothesis.

A prospective cross-sectional study recruited 114 participants (age: 19–50 years, mean age: 26 ± 6, females = 72), employees of our institute, with written informed consent. The study protocol adhered to the tenets of Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the institutional review board. Participants completed a survey, that was modified from the convergence insufficiency symptoms survey [2]. The sum of the scores on this survey could range from 0 to 39. A total score of 0 indicated no symptoms and a score of 39 is highly symptomatic. Viewing distance and font size (through photodocumentation and image analysis) was measured from the participant’s workstation and their own smartphone at their habitual viewing distance, to evaluate in real-life work settings. Two-step cluster analysis of the symptom score was used to classify the participants as symptomatic and asymptomatic.

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Fig. 1: Viewing distance of digital devices.
Fig. 2: Viewing distance and symptoms score.

Data availability

Data will be provided upon request.

References

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Acknowledgements

Ms. Anshita Sodhi for her help with data collection. Ms. Shakthi Pradheepa for formatting help.

Funding

Hyderabad Eye Research Foundation for support to author PNS.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Brien Holden Institute of Optometry and Vision Science, Hyderabad Eye Research Foundation, L V Prasad Eye Institute, Road #2, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad, 500 034, India

    Sakshi Ramteke & PremNandhini Satgunam

Authors
  1. Sakshi Ramteke
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  2. PremNandhini Satgunam
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Contributions

PNS conceived the study question, design, data analysis and writing. SR contributed to study design, data collection, analysis and reviewing the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to PremNandhini Satgunam.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Ramteke, S., Satgunam, P. At what distance should digital devices be viewed?. Eye 38, 815–816 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-023-02781-9

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