ABSTRACT:
Background: Due to covid-19 educational institutions were entirely closed from March 2020. There is irresolvable to stop the spread of the Covid pandemic, which affect the school children. So, virtual classes were started, instead of traditional education. Due to this virtual learning, the screen hours spending got increased. Spending long time in the screen results in eye problems among school children. Digital eye strains are the most common problem, due to long term usage of the digital devices. The common eye associated problems, due to this perpetual usage of digital devices are dry eyes, itching, foreign body sensation, blurring of vision, headache and watering of the eyes. Methods: Quasi experimental non randomized control group design was adopted for the study. Purposive sampling technique was used to select 30 participants for study group and 30 participants for control group. Pretest was done through the digital device eye symptoms rating scale and schirmer’s dry eye test. Ophthalmic exercises were given for 15 minutes once a day for seven consecutive days. Post test was done to both study group and control group on the seventh day after intervention through the same tool. Discussion: The findings have revealed that the pretest mean score on selected eye parameters such as digital device eye symptoms 39.90 and 37.03 and for dryness of eyes are 8.57 and 10.03 in study group and control group. The paired ‘t’ test value of study group and control group on digital device eye symptoms are 15.62 and 1.62 and dryness of eyes are 6.82 and 1.469 respectively which were significant at p=0.05 and highly significant at p=0.01, p=0.001. Hence, the research hypothesis H1 accepted. The posttest mean score on selected eye parameters such as digital device eye symptoms are 18.47 and 38.96 and for dryness of eyes are 18 and 9.73 in study group and control group respectively. The unpaired ‘t’ test value for digital device eye symptoms is 8.50 and for dryness of eyes is 7.28 which is significant at p=0.05 and highly significant at p=0.01, p=0.001. Conclusion: Based on the findings the study revealed that ophthalmic exercises are more effective in reducing selected eye parameters among virtual learners.