Managing Digital Eye Strain for student Well-Being

Recent studies from the University of Murcia have shown that increased time of video display terminals (VDT) use by university students has induced an increased prevalence of dry eye symptoms (García-Ayuso et al., 2021), which could also induce a worsening in computer vision syndrome-related eye symptoms (Galindo-Romero et al., 2021). Since these facts could affect students' academic performance, we are interested in verifying our results by replicating this type of study in university students from different disciplines and countries, through the use and/or development of standardized questionnaires translated into different languages. Understanding the symptomatology related to the use of VDTs experienced by university students will allow us to develop interventions and guidelines with recommendations to help alleviate this symptomatology, something that we will be able to test by using these questionnaires again among the same students. We hope that this project will help to improve the well-being and quality of life of university students. We are therefore looking for colleagues with expertise in the fields of optometry, ophthalmology and eye health in general, as well as in the development of validated questionnaires to join us in this exciting project. This project, and the group involved, could lay the groundwork for a subsequent larger and more ambitious European project in which measurements of visual function and tear quality and quantity can be made and related to the subjective feedback from the questionnaires.