Prevalence and severity of smartphone addiction and dry eye disease in university students

Abstract

Purpose To describe the prevalence and severity of smart phone addiction and dry eye disease in university students Methods A cross sectional study was conducted on second-year undergraduate students at the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, University of Hong Kong. 62 consecutive subjects were recruited. Dry eye assessment was done with the SBM Sistemi ICP Dry Eye Analyzer (Torino, Italy) to evaluate non-invasive tear break-up time (NITBUT). Ocular symptoms were evaluated via the Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI). Smart phone addiction was assessed using the Smartphone Addiction Scale- Short Version (SAS-SV). Results The prevalence of short TBUT DES was 38.7% among undergraduate university students (mean age 19.71 ± 1.44 years, female 45%). Mean smartphone addiction score was 31.35 ± 8.26 with 41.5% of subjects having significant smartphone addiction. Average time of smartphone use was 5.13 ± 3.18 hours and average daily sleeping hours was 6.54 ± 1.12. Subjects with significant smartphone addiction had higher OSDI scores and NIKBUT times as well as shorter sleep duration than those who were deemed not addicted. There was significant inverse correlation between smartphone addiction severity and average sleep duration. Conclusion Both smartphone addiction and short TBUT dry eye disease are common problems in university students. Subjects addicted to smartphones had more severe dry eye symptoms, shorter tear breakup times and shorter sleep duration. Smartphone addiction severity was significantly inversely correlated with daily sleep duration.