Mehak Mufti

Abstract

We get up in the mornings to the bright glow of our phones acting as alarm clock and probably bid good night to the phone screen by checking WhatsApp messages or facebook updates Demands of the modern society put us in front of the digital screens for long hours resulting in many of us having eye strain, fatigue, headache, blurred vision, watering, redness in eyes along with many musculoskeletal complaints like neck pain, back pain, stiffness or pain in wrist etc. These symptoms collectively constitute the computer vision syndrome. Objective: The aim of the present study was to find the magnitude and severity of dry eye disease amongst young medical graduates who spend good amount of time on the digital screens. Materials and Methods: This is a cross sectional analytic study which was conducted on 100 undergraduate medical students at the department of Physiology, Government Medical college, Srinagar, after approval from the institutional ethical committee. Informed oral consent was taken from the participants and then a pre validated questionnaire was distributed amongst them. Subsequently Schirmers test was performed on all the participants. Statistical analysis was done using Pearson chi square test. Result: The prevalence rate of dry eye in the study population is 55.6%. Our results show that increased duration of usage of digital screens increases the risk of dry eye. Eye strain /fatigue was the most common symptom reported by 53 subjects (58.8%) followed by headache (23.3%) followed by blurring of vision. 37% of the students had never heard of dry eye whereas 53% had some knowledge about it. 62% of the students believed that digital screen exposure affects their lifestyle Majority of the students (75%) were willing to reduce their screen time as a preventive measure towards dry eye. Conclusion: Wearing computer eyewear, looking away from the screen periodically, reducing the brightness of the device, increasing conscious blinking are some of the steps that help protect our eyes from the ill effects of technology. Keywords: Digital screens, dry eye, Schirmers test.

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Abstract

Occurrence of autonomic imbalance is not very uncommon in diabetic patients and evidences of subclinical autonomic imbalance in their offsprings are also reported. Objective: To study the effect of parental diabetes on cardiac autonomic functions of their non diabetic children. aterials and Methods: The study was conducted in the department of Physiology SSIMS and RC, Davangere, after the approval of the institutional ethical committee, on 100 subjects. 50 non diabetic offsprings of diabetic parents (cases) and 50 non diabetic offsprings of non diabetic parents (controls). The subjects were in the age group of 18-25 years and were selected on the basis of predetermined inclusion exclusion criteria. The study protocol was explained and informed written consent was taken from the subjects. Battery of six conventional cardiac autonomic function tests were done which included, resting HR, HR response to deep breathing, HR response to Valsalva, DBP response to IGHT, BP and HR response to change in posture, BP response to CPT. Statistical analysis was done using Student’s unpaired t test. Result: Our results show decreased parasympathetic activity as indicated by increased basal HR (p< 0> Conclusion: Our results show that there is a state of sympathovagal imbalance in the non diabetic offsprings of diabetic parents that can be inferred from an increased sympathetic activity and decreased parasympathetic activity. Keywords: Diabetes mellitus, Autonomic function.

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