Impact of presbyopia on use of smart phones among Chinese adults

Abstract

Purpose : To better understand the impact of varying degrees of corrected and uncorrected presbyopia on the use of mobile phones in a middle-income country.

Methods : A prospective, population-based cohort study was conducted among persons aged ≧35 years in the Yuexiu area of Guangzhou. Near visual acuity (NVA), with and without presenting near correction, was measured at 40cm using a logMAR near vision tumbling E chart. Participants with uncorrected binocular NVA < 6/12 were tested with plus sphere lenses to measure best-corrected binocular NVA. A questionnaire on the impact of presbyopia on use of smart phones was administered by trained interviewers through in person or by telephone.

Results : A total of 1427 respondents (78.5% of 1817 baseline persons) were examined, and 1192 (83.5%) completed the questionnaires (mean age 52.3±11.6 years; 55.6% women). Among 426 persons with correctable near vision impairment (CNVI) owning smart phones, 290 (68.1%) had difficulty in use due to CNVI. Multiple logistic regression modeling suggested that the difficulty in smart phone use due to correctable near vision impairment was associated with the higher educational level, NVA and the more time of using smart phone. (P<0.01, adjusted for age, sex, monthly income, distance vision.) A total of 451 (69.1%) of persons with CNVI owning smartphones said they would pay (median US$45) for innovations to make smart phone use easier.

Conclusions : Difficulty in using smart phones due to impaired near vision is common in this setting, and affected persons are willing to pay for useful solutions to the problem.

This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.