Effects of virtuality on the vision of medical students at the National Uni- versity of Asuncion
Keywords:
virtuality, education, visual health, studentsAbstract
Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic led to a boom in the creation of virtual jobs to provide education that could no longer be offered in physical classrooms. Children, young people, and adults were forced to spend hours in front of screens, more than they usually did. Every day, the population spent more hours than recommended in front of display screens.This study aimed to determine the effect of virtuality on the visual health of medical students.
Materials and Methods: This cross-sectio- nal, descriptive, and observational study had a quantitative approach and was conducted from January 16, 2022, to February 16 of the same year, at the FCM-UNA. A digital survey using Google Forms was sent to the participants for collecting the data relevant to the study. The data collected was used anonymously and exclusively for research purposes, the collection of these data was carried out on a completely voluntary basis following the rules of the FCM-UNA
Results: Of the 205 students surveyed, 131 were female and 75 male. The average age of the sample population was 22 years. From 2020 to February 2022, 65.5% of the participants experienced a deterioration in their visual health. Regar- ding the use of glasses, a vast majority of the population (64.1%) wore glasses. A decrease was observed in the graduation of the users‘ lenses since the implementa- tion of virtual classes, primarily relating the use of lenses to myopia. Headaches were found to be the most common symptom experienced by the students.
Conclusions: The implementation of virtual classes affected all students, regardless of whether they wore glasses or not. This is indicated by the fact that the vast majority (77%) presented symptoms of computer vision syndrome (CVS). Regarding lens users, taking into account the increase in the po- wer of their prescription eyeglasses, it was concluded that the continuous and excessive use of digital study materials directly affected their visual health.
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