Screen Time and Dry Eyes in Children

A new study published in the Journal of Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus examined the link between dry eye disease in children and smart phone use.

The researchers concluded that  smart phone use is an important dry eye disease risk factor in children. Close observation and caution regarding video display terminal use, especially smart phones, are needed for children.

The researchers looked at two groups of kids, those with dry eye disease (the dry eye group) and those without (the control group) and tracked how much the kids looked at video display terminals of various kinds, like televisions and smart phones.

The results were that smart phone use was more common in the dry eye disease group (71%) than the control group (50%). The daily duration of smart phone use and total daily duration of video display terminal use were associated with increased risk of dry eye disease.  However, the daily duration of computer and television use did not increase the risk of dry eye disease.

Source: Journal of Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus Association Between Video Display Terminal Use and Dry Eye Disease in School Children, J Pediatr Ophthalmol Strabismus 2014 Mar 01;51(2)87-92, JH Moon, MY Lee, NJ Moon