Using tablets or smartphones for two to three hours per day increases the risk of retinopathy, while people with diabetes are five times more susceptible than people without diabetes, researchers said.
Hung Chi-ting (洪啟庭), an ophthalmologist at Fooyin University Hospital in Donggang Township (東港), Pingtung County, and Masaru Takeuchi, an ophthalmologist at National Defense Medical College in Tokorozawa City, Japan, launched the research project three years ago.
One hundred participants from Taiwan and Japan were selected for the study. Their average age was 40 and the majority of them were office workers, the researchers said.
The participants were selected because they spent long hours on computers at work and had two to three hours of screen time after work, while 50 of them had been diagnosed with diabetes, the researchers said.
The study showed that changes in the fundus — the interior surface of the eye opposite the lens — were discovered in all the diabetic participants, including increases in the number and size of petechiae and cotton wool spots on the retina, Hung said, adding that 80 percent of the diabetic participants said their vision had deteriorated and they had increased eye floaters.
About 20 percent of the participants without diabeties had increased petechiae and cotton wool spots, and 80 percent reported eye floaters, Hung said, adding that all of the participants reported dry eyes.
When people, especially those with diabetes, use a tablet or smartphone with a screen luminance of 500 lux for at least eight hours per day for three years, they are at greater risk of increased retinal blood vessels, expanded petechiae, vitreous hemorrhage, retinal detachment, neovascular glaucoma or vision loss, he said.
Cytology studies suggest that even if the luminance was 250 lux, the retina still generates new blood vessels that are fragile, he said.
People should cut down on screen time and use yellow-tinted, blue-light filters to protect the eyes, Hung said.
People with diabetes have even higher risk of retinal damage from exposure to blue light, so they should adjust luminance levels and use blue light filters, he said.
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