Study On Assessment Of Dry Eye Disease And Knowledge Regarding Its Associated Factors Amongst Health Professionals

Dry eye is a disorder of the tear film which occurs due to tear deficiency or excessive tear evaporation. With technological revolution communication devices have become an integral part of professional, educational & recreational activities. Medical students are spending more time staring at the screen for studying and for research work. Overall digital device usage increased from pre lockdown usage by 5 hours or more. The reported frequency of computer usage and its associated dry eye disease has increased in the last 1 year. Hence this study is planned to assess the magnitude of dry eye syndrome in this population. It also aims at assessing the knowledge, attitude and practice of the study group with respect to dry eye syndrome.

Analytical cross sectional study for a duration of one year from May 2021 to May 2022 was done at our hospital. Heath professionals studying or employed in our medical college & hospital were included in the study. All medical professionals aged above 18 years and below 40 years, irrespective of gender and having best corrected visual acuity of 6/6 and N6 were included in the study. Contact lens users history of any ocular surgery, trauma or currently using any topical medication were excluded

The health professionals, selected underwent an ophthalmic evaluation which included history & baseline ocular examination & administered the study questionnaire. This questionnaire evaluates the frequency & the intensity with which the symptoms are perceived with visual display terminal usage. This generated a severity score for each symptom and a final score was obtained. To measure the frequency, we  used a rating scale of 0-3 points. Score  (frequency symptom of occurrence) x (intensity of symptom) who obtain a score of 6 orare defined as having dry eye syndrome. A questionnaire to assess the knowledge, attitude & prevalence regarding the prevention of dry eye syndrome. Patients suffering from dry eye were given adequate treatment

501 participants enrolled in the study. Among them 59.3% were undergraduate, 26.7% were interns, 13.6% were PG residents & 0.4% were faculty. Mean age of participants was 23 years. Headache was found to be the most common among the participants followed by burning of eyes. Tearing was third comon symptom. Majority of participants use the mobile and laptop using the display for 3-5hrs. 53.3% of participants have heard about the dry eye syndrome. 121 participants have taken the consultation for the ocular symptoms & were examined for dry eye disease. Around (47.7 %) participants responded by closing eyes provided them maximum relief & only (7.8%) participants reported blinking to be effective practice to get the relief participants

Dry eye disease is no longer restricted to the traditional population like IT professionals. With online teaching & work there is increased in dry eye disease syndrome among the medical health professionals. With the pandemic effect, and drastic shift of the educational media from the classroom to the digital platform has increased the use of mobile, laptops or other digital pads for learning. This increased dependency on the digital devices, has led to increase in the symptoms associated with dry eye disease. This has increased the risk for the health care professionals as-well as the exposure to the longer screen time which is showing-up with the health issues.