Heavy computer use and damage to your eyes. (o/t)

[Mike Haven]

After all the scaremongering fuss caused by the press picking up on Tatemichi's research report "To study the association between computer use and visual field abnormalities (VFA) and to assess whether heavy computer users have an increased risk of glaucoma" the "good news" that seems to have been overlooked was in a reply to a letter to the authors:

"* What we found: a positive association between the heavy PC users and visual field abnormalities, only among those with refractive errors. Similar association was not seen among those without refractive errors.

"*We do not know whether: heavy PC use will cause or hasten the development of glaucoma, as the study we ran was not designed to test the cause-effect relationship; heavy PC use will heighten the risk of glaucoma through worsening of myopia, a known risk factor for glaucoma, as our study was not designed to test this hypothesis."

Still of concern to those of us with refractive errors, but possibly not quite as worrying as we all first thought.