Mobile Games Effects on Visual Acuity of Primary School Students and the Role of Chewable Multivitamins in the Improvement

Abstract

Children today encounter and utilize technology constantly both at home and in school. Television, DVDs, video games, the internet, cell phones and PDAs-all now play a formative role in many children's development. Excessive use of mobile devices can cause eye problems like myopia (short-sightedness) and amblyopia (lazy eye) in young children. With young children increasingly playing for hours on end with mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, this might grow to be a problem for them as well. The aim of this study was to assess mobile games effects on visual acuity of primary school students and the role of chewable multivitamins in the improvement. This study assessed 330 students from 4th, 5th and 6th classes of three different primary schools. They were checked regarding visual acuity defects to determine the relationship between these defects and mobile games The study was conducted at the period [October 2015-April 2017]. Full ocular examination was done, including visual acuity, cycloplegic and non-cycloplegic refraction assessment. Most of the selected sample (69.7%) were normal, while (28.8%) were with impaired visual acuity secondary to refractive errors and (1.5%) without refractive errors. The results showed that there is significant association (strong) between visual acuity and mobile games, 33.5% only of students with normal visual acuity play mobile games, while 77.9% of students with refractive disorders play mobile games.