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Computers Linked to Glaucoma?
An anonymous reader writes "Maybe we should have listened to our parents and gone outside instead of playing video games. In newly published study in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, heavy computer users were 74% more likely to develop visual field problems as compared baseline in a group of 10,202 randomly selected workers. Furthermore, heavy computer users were found to be 81% more likely to develop glaucoma."
People who stare at bright lights for 8+ hours per day without blinking frequently or changing their focus are more likely to have glaucoma. Do I get a +1, Insightful?
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
It is true!
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www.fairtax.org
IHNRTFA (I have not read the f-in article), but it seems to me this is yet another case of the misuse of statistics. Just because X% of PopulationY happens to also be in PopulationZ doesn't imply a causal relationship in any specific direction. It's just as likely that the real reason for the link is the opposite of what they suppose: that persons who have the genetic defects and/or environmental factors in their lives which lead to a higher rate of glaucoma are more likely to be computer users....
11*43+456^2
The authors haven't broken down the type of computer use at all. It'd be interesting to see where the aetiology lies - extended use without blinking (eg gamers), bad lighting conditions (oh, gamers again), LED vs CRT use etc.
I think this has more to do with heavy computer use promoting a sedentary lifestyle which is one cause of higher blood pressure than any direct affect computer monitors have on our eyes.
Mac OS X and Windows XP working side by side to fight back the night.
Gosh I hope you're joking. Either that or you don't understand the word "likelihood". Your one counterexample does not mean that the research is no longer valid.
I second this. I used to have 20/20L 20/15R. Whoops. (It's now 20/(n+5) for each eye.) But now that I use an LCD, I can go for much longer with less strain.
French-speakers are far more likely to live in the France than the average person. Therefore, if you don't want to live in France you should make sure not to learn French.
*sigh*
What was your age at the time of eyesight change and family history of eye problems? In my family, eyesight deteriorates in the teens, but the change levels off in adulthood. My dad hasn't had his prescription changed in many, many years. I still have mine changed every 2-3 years. Correlation != causation, etc.
There's your justification for the Medical Marijuana prescription!
For those that would die defending it, Freedom
has a sweet taste that the protected will never know.
And then you'd be complaining because the government has their hands in it controlling your drugs.
Some of us would, libertarians obviously. But most of us would be relieved to be able to live like tobacco addicts and alcoholics: unpersecuted.
Apparently you fall back on correlation/causation whenever you don't know what you're talking about. Newsflash: you can never prove anything, ever. You can't even prove the sun will rise tomorrow. But strong corelations usually mean something - the sun has always risen in the morning; it'll probably rise again tomorrow.
This was the only period of my life where I experienced degradation in my eyesight.
Additionally, the eye strain and feeling of my eyes being hot stopped as soon as I switched to using LCD's.
My eyesight started deteriorating rapidly before they even had computer monitors and my prescription hasn't changed in the last five years. By your reasoning, the CRT helped my eyesight.
People's desire to believe they are right is much stronger than their desire to be right.
Let me guess, your right palm is hairy?
Nope. I'm left handed.
There are plenty of things to damage eyesight, from genetic predisposition to plenty of environmental factors.
That is exactly the point. That you experienced degraded eyesight at the approximate time you started using a CRT monitor does not mean the monitor caused your eyesight to degrade. There are any number of environmental factors which may have contributed which you have not isolated. Your claim that the monitor hurt your eyesight is in no way more valid than my claim that it helped mine.
I happen to consider extended CRT use to be one environmental factor that increased the speed and severity of the degredation of eyesight.
That you consider it to be true does not affect whether or not it is.
People's desire to believe they are right is much stronger than their desire to be right.
I encourage *everyone* on slastdot to go to the eye doctor at least every other year. Glaucoma causes blindness, and unless you get tested, the first symptom will be an irreversable loss of vision. If caught early -- before a loss of vision -- it can be arrested with eye-drops. It can be arrested aftera loss of vision too, but you'll still be somewhat blind!
Dude, I think I can see my house from here.
Maybe you should lose some weight? It does not say anything about computer users that are height/weight proportionate.
Asking someone with glaucoma is interesting, but nowhere near as interesting as the results of a thorough scientific study where intraocular pressure...
Several members of my family are afflicted with glaucoma. I value their opinion much more than google results. Marijuana is the only treatment out there that can give pain relief almost instantaneously. You are very wrong if you think that someone with the disease cannot decide for themselves which treatments are more effective when it comes to pain relief. Authoritative or not, you cannot argue with results, just because they don't come from someone in a lab coat.
The difference is, Bob-with-a-cold is giving his opinion about decongestants, and glaucoma-sufferer-with-cripling-pain-which-makes-l ife-unbearable will tell you they've tried many different medications, and they don't work as well or as quickly as Marijuana does. I'm also very skeptical of studies released by drug companies that try to convince people that their $75/bottle eye drops work better than the $0 marijuana that they are legally permitted to grow in their basement.