Investigating computer vision syndrome and associated factors before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: A comparative cross-sectional study in faculty members

Background One of the most significant impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on human societies was the transformation of face-to-face training (F2F) into distance education (DE) processes. Objective This study aimed to investigate computer vision syndrome (CVS) before and during the COVID-19 pandemic and identify the risk factors that may lead to increased incidence of CVS in university professors due to DE. Methods Using an online questionnaire, occupational and demographic information, hours of computer, laptop, smartphone, and tablet usage before and during the COVID-19 pandemic were collected. In the second part, participants were asked to report the frequency of occurrence and severity of 16 CVS symptoms over the past year and the last 7 days. The third section of the questionnaire recorded CVS risk factors such as ergonomic status of workstations, during virtual live training (VLT) and offline content creation during the COVID-19 period. Results The prevalence of CVS was 9.03% before COVID-19 and 34.19% during COVID-19. The cumulative incidence of CVS was 25.48%. The mean ± SD of the CVS final score significantly increased before (6.82 ± 4.29) and during COVID-19 (8.48 ± 7.11) ( p < 0.001). Associated factors with CVS revealed using Univariate analyses (OR >1; 95% CI 0.75–11.27, p < 0.05). Conclusion DE has led to increased prevalence and incidence of CVS in university professors during the COVID-19 pandemic. It appears that associated factors with CVS such as increased usage time of smartphones can contribute to increase CVS in university professors.