In focus: Opening practitioners eyes to the new digital age

Digital technology dominates everyday life. The sheer volume of screen usage is accepted in a way few other activities would be. A third of people now spend nine hours a day looking at a screen, delegates at the Bausch and Lomb (B+L) Ultra meeting heard. Even the pushiest parent would start to worry if their child had their head stuck in a book for that length of time.

The impact on visual comfort of screen usage, computer vision syndrome (CVS) or digital eye strain (DES), is well known. Earlier this year The Vision Council issued a report on digital eyestrain at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. This revealed some startling statistics including the fact that 90% of people in the US use a digital device for two or more hours a day. It also revealed that 76% look at a digital device in the hour before going to bed, that the under 30s have the highest rates of DES (73%) compared to other age groups and that 30% of over 60s have prolonged use of digital devices. For the optical profession the most devastating statistic was that 90% of patients do not talk to their eye care provider about digital device usage.