American staff are spending an excessive amount of time screens.
Greater than 104 million people within the U.S., including nearly 70% of individuals working office jobs, spend upward of seven hours a day screens, in line with a Tuesday report from the Deloitte Economics Institute and the American Optometric Association.
Consequently, symptoms of “excessive screen time,” or greater than seven hours of screen time a day, are costing the U.S. $73 billion per yr, the report said. The figure was determined by analyzing the direct financial costs incurred by health systems, the symptoms’ effect on productivity at work and their perceived effect on a person’s well-being.
The omnipresence of screens in on a regular basis life puts people at a better risk of contending with eye problems corresponding to digital eye strain, or DES, which may cause symptoms including neck and back pain, blurred vision, headaches and dry eyes.
Just two hours of screen time per day can induce these symptoms, and if left untreated, the study found they’ll “result in decreased productivity, exacerbate other undiagnosed eye conditions and will affect a person’s sleep quality and mental health.”
Nonetheless, the adversarial effect of conditions corresponding to DES, in addition to direct costs to the person, might be mitigated through regular visits to a watch doctor, using eye drops and wearing appropriate glasses, in line with the report.
The study found that individuals with excessive screen time exposure could save as much as $1,920 per person by seeing an optometrist and managing their symptoms.
“These findings further underscore the importance of higher screen time habits and receiving annual, in-person comprehensive eye exams with an AOA doctor of optometry to keep up your eye and overall health,” Ronald Benner, president of the AOA, said in a release.
A sample of 1,000 survey responses of men and girls ages 18 to 64 from across 50 states, in addition to a review of existing data and literature, were used to conduct this study, the report said.
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