[ad_1]
January 07, 2026
2 min read
Key takeaways:
- Systane Ultra UD led to significantly lower digital eye strain scores.
- Blink and eye fixation rates during computer-based visual tasks were unaffected.
Daily use of preservative-free artificial tears significantly reduced digital eye strain symptoms after 1 month but did not affect blink or eye fixation rates while performing visual tasks, according to a study in Scientific Reports.
“Artificial tears are the first approach for managing [dry eye disease],” Sara Ortiz-Toquero, PhD, of IOBA Eye Institute at University of Valladolid, Spain, and colleagues wrote. “Lubricants reduce surface friction during blinking, thereby improving dryness symptoms and lubricating the ocular surface, which helps alleviate discomfort.”
Ortiz-Toquero and colleagues conducted a prospective study of 30 adults who used Systane Ultra UD (Alcon), a preservative-free artificial tear in a single-dose vial, four times per day for 1 month.
After 7 days and 30 days, the researchers evaluated the participants’ performance of computer-based visual tasks, including out-loud and silent reading, watching an animated clip and counting shapes, before and after drop instillation. They also assessed symptoms of dry eye and computer vision syndrome, tear stability, blink rate, eye fixations per minute and out-loud reading speed.
To be included in the study, participants had to have eye discomfort related to using screens (indicated by a Computer Vision Symptom Scale score between 29 and 42) and eye dryness (indicated by an Ocular Surface Disease Index score between 13 and 24). They were also required to self-report using screens for longer than 4 hours per day during the study.
“The single-arm design without a control group is mitigated by the inclusion of two pre-treatment visits (recruitment and initial), which serve to confirm the stability of symptoms over time and ensure that participants fully understood the questionnaire items,” Ortiz-Toquero and colleagues wrote. “This approach helps reduce the likelihood of random or inconsistent responses and strengthens the reliability of the baseline data.”
After 30 days, patients reported significant improvements in symptoms on both the OSDI questionnaire and Computer Vision Symptom Scale (P < .01 for both).
“These changes represent a shift from moderate to mild symptom severity, suggesting a tangible improvement in patient comfort,” the researchers wrote. “In contrast, symptom scores remained stable between the recruitment and initial visits, when artificial tears were not used, reinforcing that the observed improvements are likely attributable to the intervention.”
There were no significant between-visit differences in blink rate, eye fixation or noninvasive tear breakup time. Tear meniscus height “increased considerably” after instilling the drop but “returned to the initial values” after completing the computer tasks.
Out-loud reading speed was assessed by having patients read a 77-word International Reading Speed Text from a computer screen, which researchers converted to a “normalized” value (the patient’s words per minute divided by the average expected speed). The only significant change in out-loud reading speed was a “slight improvement” in normalized value from 0.99 ± 0.13 at the initial visit to 1.02 ± 0.15 at the final visit (P < .01).
“These results provide evidence of the beneficial effect of artificial tears based on [hydroxypropyl guar] and hyaluronic acid for the management of ocular and [dry eye syndrome] symptoms in [visual display terminal] users,” Ortiz-Toquero and colleagues wrote.
However, the findings suggest these benefits do “not translate into measurable improvements in visual task performance or tear film metrics.”
Ask a clinical question and tap into Healio AI’s knowledge base.
- PubMed, enrolling/recruiting trials, guidelines
- Clinical Guidance, Healio CME, FDA news
- Healio’s exclusive daily news coverage of clinical data
[ad_2]
Source link
