Abstract
Ethnic differences in prevalence of visual impairment have been reported in children but this distinction has been less studied in college age adults (Kleinstein, 2003). Other research suggests an overall 16.8% prevalence of myopia in the Latino population (Tarczy-Hornoch, 2006). We previously noted a high incidence of visual discomfort symptoms reported by a diverse population of college students. These findings were expected, as symptoms including ocular fatigue, perceptual distortions, and headaches are linked to nearwork tasks commonly performed by students, such as reading or viewing computer screens. Based on ethnic-specific prevalence of myopia noted by other studies we investigated whether similar patterns might be observed in reports of visual discomfort symptoms in college students. Methods: Two validated surveys for assessing visual discomfort symptoms, the Visual Discomfort Survey (VDS) (Conlon et al., 1999) and the Convergence Insufficiency Symptoms Survey (CISS) (Borsting et al., 2003), and demographic questions were administered to 451 college students. Results: Participants who identified as Latino/a or Hispanic showed significantly different patterns of results in a mediation model than those that identified as Non-Latio/a or Non-Hispanic. These findings suggest prevalence of visual discomfort in the college population may be confounded by ethnic differences.
Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2017