Coping With Covid-19: Computer Vision Syndrome among University Students in Malaysia

The pandemic outbreak has inspired many of us to contribute to the needs of educators as they move towards online learning (Aguilar, 2020). Gowrisankaran and Sheedy (2015) stated that symptoms reported by computer users include eye discomfort, poor vision, headache, neck ache and shoulder pain. Eye discomfort includes eye strain, eye fatigue, burning and irritation of the eyes, tired eyes, dry eyes, ache in and around the eyes. Most importantly, the poor vision comprises of blurred vision at near and blurred vision when looking from near too far. All these syndromes known as computer vision syndrome (CVS). According to Loh and Reddy (2008), The American Optometric Association describes computer vision syndrome as a complex of eye and vision disorders linked to behaviors that stress the near vision and which are experienced in or during the use of a computer. Randolph (2017) stated that bad lighting, glare and reflection on the screen, incorrect viewing distances, bad posture, uncorrected vision problems, or a combination of these factors can cause symptoms. Symptoms of CVS can be split into three main categories that is (a) eye-related symptoms (dry eyes, watery eyes, irritated eyes, burning eyes), (b) vision-related symptoms (eyestrain, eye fatigue, headache, blurred vision, double vision), and (c) posture-related symptoms (sore neck, shoulder pain, sore back) (Yan et al., 2008). Besides, it was widely accepted that working near to computer screen and long-hour computer work were two general factors leading to CVS. Keywords: computer vision syndrome, COVID-19, student