Impact of Electronic Gadgets Overuse on Myopia Progression among Young People: A Prospective Study

Introduction: Myopia has a multifactorial aetiology, involving interplay between environmental, genetic and behavioural factors. In today's times of digitalisation, young people are now more exposed to digital devices, which is another possible risk factor for myopia.Aim: To determine the effect of mobile and laptop overuse on progression of myopia in young people at three time points of six months interval.Materials and Methods: This prospective observational study was conducted in the Department of Ophthalmology, Shyam Shah Medical College and associated Gandhi Memorial Hospital, Rewa, Madhya Pradesh, India, from of January 2019 to September 2020. A total of 400 eyes of 200 myopic patients were included. All the eyes were categorised into three groups based upon degree of myopia at the time of presentation. Cycloplegic autorefraction followed by subjective refinement of refraction was done and Spherical Equivalent (SE) was calculated in time 1, time 2 and time 3. Progression of myopia was calculated as increase in myopic refraction of subject's eye between time 1 and time 3. Questionnaire survey about amount of time spent on mobile and laptop and their working distance was done. Then task-specific-diopter-hours per day were calculated. Multivariate analysis was done to estimate the adjusted odds ratio for mobile and laptop use associated with myopia progression.Results: The present study was conducted on 200 patients having varying degree of myopia. Mean age of patients with low, moderate and high myopia was 18.62 +/- 3.18, 17.65 +/- 3.59 and 17.49 +/- 3.91 years, respectively. The male to female ratio was 1.04:1. This study documents task specific mobile and laptop diopter hours per day was significantly higher in eyes with progression as compared to no progression in low, moderate as well as in high myopes (p-value<0.05).Conclusion: In the present study, risk of progression of myopia was significantly higher in patients engaged for longer duration on mobile and laptop and at near distance. Thus, this study concludes that overuse of electronic gadgets has a significant adverse impact on myopia progression in young people.