Project Title: COMPUTER VISION SYNDROME

Eye Health in the Workplace

Student Name: RHODORA ZEPEDA

Project Objectives:
1. Identify eye problems and risks with computer use in the workplace by
conducting surveys, interviews, and personal observations in the office and in
the field.
2. Analyze collected data and conduct research on causes of eye symptoms with
computer use.
3. Develop a plan of action to prevent cluster of symptoms with computer use by
establishing educational materials via poster, booklet, and video to provide
general advice and guidance for managing eye health and safety issues.

Project Methods:
Activities Timeline
Pitch project proposal to the Regional 1/10/2018
Director of a Homecare Group with verbal
approval to conduct project in the branch
office.
Formal letter of project proposal to Sent 1/12/2018
Regional Director sent via email. Received written approval 1/15/2018
(Copy of letter in appendix)
Formulate questionnaires for the survey 1/28/2018
and interviews.
Online survey via Survey Monkey 1/29/2018- 2/5/2018
Interviews and observations of healthcare 2/7/2018 – 2/23/2018
workers in the office and in the field
Analyses of collected data and research 2/1/2018 – 3/9/2018
of CVS.
Creation of educational materials – 2/1/2018 – 3/10/2018
poster, video, booklet
Inquire local printing shop re. cost of 2/20/2018
printing poster and booklet
Review and edit CVS video, CVS video 3/1/2018 – 3/10/2018
booklet and project overview. Post CVS
video and CVS booklet video on youtube.
Submit project overview.
Send link of CVS video and CVS booklet 3/11/2018
video to Regional Director and co-
workers that participated in the project.

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I think a successful project is one that you are interested in it, passionate about it, and
most importantly is you are enthusiastic about it. I wanted to research on CVS to help
myself and others who are suffering from this affliction. I had a clear vision (no pun
intended) of what my project will be at the start. I felt that it was a perfect fit for my
workplace as all workers use a computer. I pitched the project to our Regional Director
and she gave me a verbal approval right away. Then I sent a formal letter 2 days later
and received a written approval in 3 days via e-mail with the stipulation that I cannot use
the name of the company and if there is a problem we can find a way around it.
Formulating questions for the survey was easy, I knew what I wanted to ask and I only
limited questions to 4 that were clear, short, concise and easy to understand. Survey
Monkey is a free online survey tool that I used as my coworkers were familiar with it.
Below are the survey questions and results:
1. In a typical working day, how long do you use a computer? The computer can be
a smartphone, tablet, desktop or laptop.

8-7 hours 6-5 hours 4-3 hours 2-1 hours

2. Do you experience any of the following symptoms when using a computer?

Eye redness…………………………………. 17.4%

Burning sensation…………………………… 40.0%
Headache …………………………………….45.71%
Blurred Vision ………………………………..28.57%
Dry eyes …………………………………….. 57.14%
Neck & Shoulder pain …………………….. 74.29%

3. Have you heard of Computer Vision Syndrome?

YES ……….. 18.42%

NO ………… 81.58%

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4. Do you want information about Computer Vision Syndrome and its prevention?
YES …….. 76.92%
NO ……… 23.08%

The survey was open for a week. I sent emails to my coworkers reminding them
about the survey. I had 40 respondents which was over 50% of the total workers and
above my target number. This was a good turnout considering that the company
usually send out surveys with a timeline of 2- 4 weeks.
I did the online survey first before the interviews and observations, so I have an idea
who to approach and ask for the interviews and observations. Everyone that I asked
to participate were all very cooperative and very willing to be photographed. They all
signed the disclosures. I took advantage of the meetings we had in February for the
interviews, observations, photos, and videos I needed. I was able to use all the
photos I took and they all fit harmoniously with the graphics. One of our clinical
supervisors told me that she always blink in the photos, and it so happened that
there is about blinking in my booklet, so I placed her photograph strategically there. I
took a photo of our Regional Director with and without her glasses on, and she
chose the photo with the glasses on, and that photo fitted perfectly with the eye wear
designs.
We are a big group and hold our meetings at the Lincoln Center (yes, we have a
Lincoln Center in Bay City, MI!) I spotted a Tigers banner hanging on the wall in one
of the office rooms of the Lincoln Center and asked the office lady occupying that
room if I can use her room for a video recording. Explained what it is for and that I
really liked the Tigers banner on the wall to be in my video. She let me use her room
and just flipped down any papers with names in them.

Tigers banner

I used iphone X for all the photos, videos, and audio recordings.
There is a fee to export results from the Survey Monkey. So, I just gathered all the
results and made my own charts. I started with line graphs but decided that the pie
charts looked visually appealing.

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All my researches were done online. There are only a handful of evidenced based
research about CVS and most of them that I was able to gain access to were from
Asia, I particularly liked the article by Dr. Loh Keng Yin from the Malaysian Family
Physician Journal. I also used a great deal of information from OSHA as well as the
American Academy of Ophthalmology (www.aao.org) and American Academy of
Optometry (www.aaopt.org).
PROJECT OUTCOMES
All my project outcomes were met as summarized below:
1. Received verbal and written approval from the Regional Director to conduct my
project at the branch office of the homecare group.
2. Formulated simple, concise, and easy to understand questions for the survey in
a timely manner.
3. Received timely response of online survey from my coworkers with positive
feedback.
4. Gained interpersonal learning and built good connection and bond with my
coworkers as well as management.
5. Gained organization skills with the data collected as well as used critical
thinking and problem- solving skills on how to proceed with the video, booklet
and poster making.
6. Produced a high quality, captivating, and informative video, booklet, and poster,
with positive feedback from coworkers, homecare group management,
classmates, mentor, friends, and family.
Made a difference in being proactive and thinking about the eye health of my
health worker community.

POSTER
I made the first poster very quick but not happy about it, there was something
lacking or not right with it. I changed the first photo with a dog photo but still was not
satisfied with the result, and the photo has a website name in it that I cannot remove.
Then, as I was going through my research, I found that Physical Therapy has a very
important role in its prevention, so I added what PT can do with CVS prevention in
the layout. Finally, I found an awesome photo of a cute puppy with the computer and
it is the year of the dog, and it just turned out perfect, I think!

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 Final Poster

Rejected posters

Cost of printing of 13” x 19” poster is $1.00.

CVS VIDEO
Making the video was the most challenging. I was the scriptwriter, director, makeup
artist, location manager, production manager, etc. I was a one-woman film crew with
only an iphone, no fancy camera gadgets. I have a Chroma Key Green Screen kit
that I used for the first time. I converted our living room to a studio one Sunday. It
was noisy, with the dishwasher on and other noises outside, amazingly, the iphone
recorded my voice well. Removing the unwanted and distracting noise was very
hard.
I wrote the script for my intro and thank you first, then wrote the script for the body of
the video later on, limited my time to less than 10 mins. The script guided the
animations in the video. I recorded the audio of the video in the bathroom with the
iphone, I tried it in the spa for the enclosed space and hoping for a better audio but
there was an echo inside.

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I took a video footage of my observations in the office but it was not necessary and
did not use it in the video. My guest doctor did not require any script and knew what
he wanted to say. The video footages of the sample exercises were all done by
Physical Therapists and they only needed direction on what I wanted them to do. All
were done in one take.

BOOKLET
Making the booklet was so much fun and tedious. I worked on it every day from the
1st of February until now. I am still finalizing the layout, checking all the spellings,
sources and citations for printing. I have been adding, deleting, editing as needed
throughout the process. It has 54 pages of visually appealing text and graphics.
I took me a long time to figure out how to put the music in the video. I found a music
@ Amazon that is specifically for presentations with no copyright liability, the cost is
only about $1.29. Cost of printing the booklet is $3.00.

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DISCUSSION
At the beginning of this class, I had set my mind about an eye health project due to
my eye and vision problems. I had to see an Ophthalmologist in November of last
year due to worsening of my asthenopia and was diagnosed with dry eyes and
prescribed with Refresh that really helped. I was not aware of Computer Vision
Syndrome back then, and when I started my research on eye health, I stumbled
upon this new emerging health condition with computer use. It was a eureka
moment! All the symptoms described were spot on what I have. This past February,
I had an appointment with an Optometrist and we had a lengthy discussion about
CVS, she gave me tips and told me about the blue light, which I have included in the
booklet. I have been using computer glasses now to decrease glare and filter out
blue light thus helping me sleep at night. I suffered from insomnia when I worked on
the computer at night without the computer glasses.
From my research, the American Academy of Ophthalmology does not recommend
any special eye wear for computer use. However, based on my personal experience
and interviews, I highly recommend it.
Learning about CVS from my research and following all the interventions and tips I
wrote in the booklet and in the video have remedied my eye and vision symptoms.
Conducting the project at my workplace was ideal and relevant as 100% of my
coworkers use a computer- tablet, smartphone, desktop, laptop. Results of the
survey surprisingly revealed 81.58% were not aware of CVS, with a high prevalence
of the common symptoms – neck and shoulder pain (74.29%), dry eyes (57.14%),
headache (45.71%), burning sensation (40.0%), blurred vision (28.57%), and eye
redness (17.4%).
The adaptation of EMR (Electronic Medical Record) in the health care system to
facilitate workflow and improve the quality of patient care and patient safety require
clinicians/healthcare workers to work on computers for long hours. My survey results
show long hours of computer use on a typical day of the homecare workers with
51.28% @ 7-8 hours, 30.77% @ 5-6 hours, and 17.95% @ 3-4 hours, putting them
at greatest risk for CVS.
All my outcomes from my Service Learning Contract were all met as I already
outlined in the project outcomes page. And I feel that I went above and beyond my
previously stated objectives. I did my thing, and did it with all my might and
enthusiasm, put my soul in it and stamped my own personality in my project.
My limitations were time, technology, and mastery of the English language. I work
full time, 5 days a week and drive over 100 miles every day. I tried to manage my
time, practiced my speech while driving, completed all paperwork for patients so that
I have some time to work on the project. I spent so many hours watching tutorials on
making a video, using the green screen, transitions and animations. We speak 3

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languages at home and the probability of mispronunciation and mixing of English
words is very high. My personal tragedy also put a big impact on my project. My
beloved dog passed away, he was my companion for 17 years and I am still grieving
from the loss.
CLINICAL RELEVANCE OF MY PROJECT
My research on Computer Vision Syndrome was an eye opener (no pun intended
again!), I found that Physical Therapy has a very important role in its prevention and
management. Prevention remains the main strategy in managing CVS and physical
therapy can be instrumental in modification in ergonomics of the working
environment and education of both the employee and employers regarding posture
and motor function and muscle performance, and enhance health, wellness, and
fitness. CVS is still underdiagnosed, and people should be made aware of the
harmful effects of prolonged use of VDTs on the eyes. I am planning on distributing
my posters and booklets to offices/clinics to promote awareness of this new
emerging problem with computer and its accompanying VDT and hoping that
computer workers will gain insight and knowledge and be able to prevent the
symptoms of CVS, hence improve their quality of life and productivity.

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Appendix: Letter to Regional Director

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References:
• Working Safely with Video Display Terminals. US Dept of Labor,
Occupational Safety & Health Administration. https://osha.gov. Accessed Feb
10, 2018.
• Eye Health in the Workplace. A guide for PCBUs and workers.
www.comcare.go.au. Accessed Feb 10, 2018
• Computer Vision Syndrome. American Optometric Association. www.aoa.org.
Accessed Feb 10, 2018
• KY Loh, SC Redd. Understanding and Preventing Computer Vision
Syndrome, Malays Fam Physician. 2008; 3(3):128-130. Published online
2008 Dec 31. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Accessed Feb 10, 2018
• P Ranasinghe, WS Wathurapatha, YS Perera, DA Lamabadusuriya, S
Kulatunga, N Jayawardana, P Katalunda. Computer Vision Syndrome among
computer workers in a developing country: an evaluation of prevalence and
risk factors. BMC Res Notes. 2016; 9:150. Published online 2016 Mar 9. doi:
10.1186/s13104-016-1962-1. https://bmcrenotes.biomedcentral.com.
Accessed Feb 10, 2018
• K Boyd, Reviewed by E Jimenez, MD. What is Presbyopia? American
Academy of Ophthalmology website. https://www.aao.org. Published Sept 1,
2017. Accessed Feb 11, 2018
• K Boyd, Reviewed by D Satterfield, MD. Nearsightedness: What is Myopia?
American Academy of Ophthalmology website. https://www.aao.org.
Published Sept 1, 2013. Accessed Feb 11, 2018
• Eye Health A-Z. American Academy of Ophthalmology website.
https://aao.org. Accessed Feb 11, 2018
• Rouse M. What is VDT? www.whatis.techtarget.com. Updated March 2011.
Accessed Feb 13, 2018
• Motor Function Training. www.guidancetoptpractice.apat.org. Accessed Feb
13, 2018
• Computers, Digital Devices and Eye Strain. Published Mar 1, 2016.
www.aao.org. Accessed Feb 23, 2018
• What is blue light? www.bluetechlenses.com Accessed Feb 23, 2018
• C Vimont, Reviewed by P Khurana, MD. Are computer glasses worth it?
www.aao.org. Accessed Feb 23, 2018
• Lutein and Zeaxanthin. www.aoa.org. Accessed Feb 23, 2018
• L Sanchez. What effect do cucumbers have on eyes? www.leaf.tv. Accessed
Feb 23, 2018
• Ergonomics. www.therapeuticassociates.com Accessed Feb 24, 2018
• Meltzer L/CBS News. The Power of Sleep: How shut-eye helps the body as
you age. Oct 5, 2017.www.cbsnews.com. Accessed March 7, 2018

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