RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SCREEN TIME AND DRY EYE SYNDROME IN SCHOOL CHILDREN IN BENIN CITY

Abstract

School children in Nigeria, especially in urban areas, spend an average of 3-10 hours in front of a screen per day (NCC, 2021). Long hours of screen time has been suggested to decrease blink rate which could lead to the development of dry eye disease due to increased ocular surface exposure. The main goal of this study was to determine if there is a relationship between screen time and dry eye syndrome in school children in Benin City, Nigeria. OSDI questionnaires were distributed to children from three randomly selected schools in Benin City to determine the severity of ocular irritation from dry eye disease. Also, tear quantity, using Schirmer’s strips, and fluorescein tear break-up times were measured. 266 children between ages 9 – 15 years, comprising 135 males and 131 females, participated in this study. The mean age of the participants was 12.17 ± 1.96 years. Diagnostic criteria for dry eye disease was an OSDI score greater than or equal to 13 and either a positive test of tear quantity or tear break-up time. 52 out of the 266 participants were found to have dry eye disease giving an overall prevalence value of 19.55%. Average screen time in the DED group was 7.60 ± 3.05 hours and 4.93 ± 2.31 hours in the Non-DED group. The difference in average screen time between the two groups was found to be statistically significant (p < 0.05) using the unpaired t-test analysis. In conclusion, this study showed that there is a significant relationship between screen time and the occurrence of dry eye syndrome and as such children should be monitored closely so that they do not spend an injurious amount of time on screen-based devices.