Dry eye and its association with digital screen exposure among medical students in a tertiary care hospital in South Kerala

Purpose: To assess the proportion of dry eye among medical students in a tertiary care hospital and determine its association with digital screen exposure. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in the Ophthalmology department from October 2019 to April 2021 among 145 undergraduate medical students. Data regarding the pattern of digital screen use were collected from the students, and the symptomatology of dry eye was assessed with the help of the SPEED questionnaire. Dry eye tests were done, and data were analyzed. Results: Mobile phone was the most frequently used screen type by the medical students (80%). Furthermore, 53.1% spent more than 1 hour using digital screens in the dark, and 59.3% of participants regularly used digital screens for 3-5 years. In addition, 68.3% used the screens at 26%–50% brightness. Results revealed that 42.1% had dry eyes, out of which 53.1% had symptomatic dry eyes, and 49.7% tested positive for dry eyes. Duration of digital screen use in the dark was the factor that was associated the most with dry eye ( P = 0.004). Increased duration of total screen use in years was found to have a significant association with dry eye among the students ( P = 0.020). Conclusion: In this study, 42.1% of the students were diagnosed to have dry eyes. More than half of them were symptomatic. There is a significant association between digital screen exposure and dry eyes, with the longer duration of exposure and usage of screens in dim light being the key contributing factors.