Many of your children patients may need computer eyeglasses soon. Nearly half of children spend more than three hours a day using digital media devices such as desktop and laptop computers and electronic tablets and smartphones, according to The Vision Council VisionWatch 2012 Digital Eye Fatigue Report. Among respondents with children living at home, just over half, 51 percent, report their children spend less than three hours daily using digital media devices. An additional 13 percent report their children do not use digital media at all. More children in households with incomes under $60,000 do not use digital media (17 percent). Conversely children in higher income households (over $60,000) have access and use these devices; only 10 percent report no use. Children of people who use digital media more than six hours daily often have children who also use digital media more than six hours (19 percent of the time), significantly more often than children of those who use less digital media than six hours daily (just 6 percent).
An essential area of questioning to add to your pre-examination lifestyle history questionnaire is digital media usage. We recommend you ask all patients, not just children, these three questions.
1. How many hours per day do you use digital media devices such as computers, electronic tablets or smartphones?
2. Do you ever experience symptoms such as intermittent blurriness, trouble keeping your place while reading, dry eyes or low grade headaches while using your digital media devices?
3. What solutions have you tried to decrease or eliminate the symptoms?
Question 1 lets you screen out of the general population those who might need your care.
Question 2 pre-sets patients to think about problems associated with their use of digital media devices so that they are ready to have a discussion about solutions.
Question 3 helps you make the point that what they’ve tried in the past has not worked, so your prescribed solution is better.
Your action plan for this week is to add these three questions to your pre-examination lifestyle history questionnaire for all patients, then, use patient answers to these questions to improve their quality of life by prescribing the appropriate lenses and treatment.
