Heavy PC use and eye disease
p2pnet.net News:- If you’re short-sighted and you spend a lot of time in front of a computer, you could be opening yourself to glaucoma, an eye diseases in which the eye-ball swells because of increased fluid pressure.
At least, that’s the conclusion of Japanese researchers whose study is published in Britain’s Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
Glaucoma is relatively common eye disease that develops very slowly, characterised by progressive sight defects or visual field abnormalities over time, says a report in News-Medical.Net, going on:
"Its exact cause is unknown, although potential risk factors, including smoking and high blood pressure, have been suggested."
Researchers randomly tested more than 10,000 workers with an average age of 43 as part of a general medical check-up. Questionnaires were also completed about computer use at home and at work, and a history of eye disease was taken.
"The test revealed that 522 (5.1%) employees had visual field abnormalities. And there appeared to be a significant link between these and heavy computer use among those with either long or short sight, collectively known as ‘refractive errors’," says the story.
However, before you abandon your computer in favour of a typewriter, "This study had several limitations," says the paper. "Firstly, our study design was cross sectional. Secondly, comparatively few women were studied because male employees comprise most of the Japanese workforce. Thirdly, refractive errors were not determined ophthalomogically in all participants. Finally, it is difficult to obtain a precise family history of glaucoma because a large number of glaucoma patients are undiagnosed.
"These limitations indicate the need for further studies to confirm our findings. Computer stress is reaching higher levels than have ever been experienced before. In the next decade, therefore, it might be important for public health professionals to show more concern about myopia and VFA (visual field abnormalities) iheavy computer users."
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See:-
eye disease – Computer use may be linked to the development of glaucoma, News-Medical.Net, November 16, 2004
paper - Possible association between heavy computer users and glaucomatous visual field abnormalities: a cross sectional study in Japanese workers, J Epidemiol Community Health 2004;58:1021–1027. doi: 10.1136/jech.2003.018127
November 16th, 2004 at 2:39 pm
Thank you for touching on a subject that has been ignored for many years.
In addition to glaucoma, you may mention other diseases of the eye, such as UVEITIS, which is inflamation of the eye ball.
I suffer from this disease; I worked for many years as a computer programmer.
Also, I hope in the future you test the female population as well, for your studies. After all, the majority of computer users in America are women…
I saw several ophtalmologists due to my disease.
I asked about the impact of computer use on the eye.
Not a single doctor admitted to even a possible correlation between heavy computer use and eye diseases. Are they afraid of something, or just plain ignorant…?
Please keep us posted, you may be opening a pandora’s box… the ‘elephant in the room’ that nobody notices… thanks. bye
November 16th, 2004 at 2:50 pm
Maybe it’s time to replace all of those monitors with screen readers and headphones hooked into sound cards; but then again maybe not, much of the software not written by Microsoft isn’t accessible to support sighted people in their work. Too bad since screen readers make for effective multitasking devices; listen to the headphones and look at other things than your monitor.
November 17th, 2004 at 2:46 am
I’ve been using my PC since 1999, all day, every day (weekends too). Lately I’ve been getting odd inflamation in one of my eyes. It becomes quite itchy and irritated, but worse my vision in that eye becomes double and quite blurred. I haven’t seen an optomotrist yet because it usually subsides within 24 hours or so with a treatment every few hours of Visine eye drops. I think I better look into this more closely (in particular this UVEITIS you mention) and perhaps stop procrastinating about seeing the doctor.