Influence of Six Weeks Eye Exercise Program on the Severity of Digital Eye Strain Among Primary School Students

Literature suggest that treatment of digital eye strain (DES) prescribed by health professionals is not highly effective in reducing the symptoms of it. This demands an additional management to be prescribed along with the current treatment for DES. Exercise is one of the potential emerging additional strategies in the conservative management of DES. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to estimate the influence of eye exercise (EE)among primary school students with DES. A Computer Vision Syndrome Questionnaire (CVS-Q) score of 6 was used to identify the subjects with DES, followed by ophthalmologist examination. Then, the subjects were allocated into two groups. Group A (n = 15) received conventional therapy (CT) (artificial tears and the 20-20-20 rule) and EE (pencil push-ups, eye-rolling, and palming). Group B (n = 11) received CT. Both groups underwent treatment for a period of six weeks. Before and after treatment, CVS-Q was administered to all participants. Treatment outcome was analyzed using the Wilcoxon signed rank test and the Mann-Whitney U test. The results revealedtatistical significance within group A (p = 0.001), and across groups (p = 0.006), and statistical non-significant within group B (p = 0.104).These results suggest that exercise is beneficial in lessening the severity of DES among school students. The EE may be prescribed along with the CT to reduce the severity of DES among primary school students.