Investigating computer vision syndrome and associated factors before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: A comparative cross-sectional study in faculty members.

Abstract

Background: One of the most significant impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on human societies was the transformation of face-to-face training (F2F) into distance education (DE) processes.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate computer vision syndrome (CVS) before and during the COVID-19 pandemic and identify the risk factors that may lead to increased incidence of CVS in university professors due to DE.

Methods: Using an online questionnaire, occupational and demographic information, hours of computer, laptop, smartphone, and tablet usage before and during the COVID-19 pandemic were collected. In the second part, participants were asked to report the frequency of occurrence and severity of 16 CVS symptoms over the past year and the last 7 days. The third section of the questionnaire recorded CVS risk factors such as ergonomic status of workstations, during virtual live training (VLT) and offline content creation during the COVID-19 period.

Results: The prevalence of CVS was 9.03% before COVID-19 and 34.19% during COVID-19. The cumulative incidence of CVS was 25.48%. The mean ± SD of the CVS final score significantly increased before (6.82 ± 4.29) and during COVID-19 (8.48 ± 7.11) (p < 0.001). Associated factors with CVS revealed using Univariate analyses (OR >1; 95% CI 0.75-11.27, p < 0.05).

Conclusion: DE has led to increased prevalence and incidence of CVS in university professors during the COVID-19 pandemic. It appears that associated factors with CVS such as increased usage time of smartphones can contribute to increase CVS in university professors.