Binge watching and its effects on ocular health among young adults

Abstract

To assess the effects of binge watching on ocular health. A short term (2 months) descriptive study was conducted on young adults aged 18 years - 26 years of a medical college of North India. Sample size was 492 participants. A pre-validated questionnaire was administered online to the participants collecting data on demographics, attitudes and practices of binge watching and ocular symptoms they experienced. Then they were subjected to ocular examination. Schirmer test 1 and tear break up time were conducted to diagnose dry eye. Data was compared between the two subsets of binge-watching and non-binge-watching, the association between binge-watching and observations were established by chi-square test. A total of 492 young adults participated in the study. Prevalence of binge-watching among the participants was 54.87%. A significant association was found between the use of streaming services and binge-watching (p-value = 0.002128). A significant association was found between binge-watching and discomfort in eyes (p-value = 0.008882), trouble sleeping (p-value = 0.003455), blurring of vision (p-value = 0.042263) and pain in neck and shoulder (p-value = 0.000042). The binge-watching subset was associated with dry eyes as found by Tear Breakup Time Test (TBUT) (OU p-value= <<0.01). The practice of binge-watching has a negative effect on ocular health.