Heavy computer users, especially those who are short-sighted, may be at risk of glaucoma, a disease that can cause blindness, a study published in a specialist journal said.
Japanese doctors assessed the sight of more than 10,200 Japanese workers, for the measurement of visual acuity and signs of glaucoma.
The volunteers were also asked to fill in questionnaires about their computer use, at home or in the office, and any history of eye disease.
A total of 165 workers, or 1.6 percent, turned out to have suspected glaucoma, which is characterized by tunnel vision or blind spots.
Those who were heavy computer users - defined as working onscreen more than eight hours a day - were twice as likely to have glaucoma than the light or medium users.
Furthermore, in the 165 with glaucoma, 136 had myopia.
The study appears in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, published by the British Medical Association.
Glaucoma is a slow, gradual disease of the optic nerve that often goes undetected. Among the identified risk factors are smoking and high blood pressure.
The authors speculate that the optic nerve in myopic people may be more vulnerable to computer stress than in normal people with vision.
If so, that would be dramatic news, given that so many hundreds of millions of people around the world now work at computer terminals, at work and at home.
They stress, however, that the study has limitations, notably that most volunteers were male and this may have skewed the results. Further work is needed to probe the suspected link, they say.
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