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Bajans not focusing on eye health enough

by Marlon Madden
4 min read
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With more people working from home and children doing online studies, one eye examiner is urging Barbadians to take better care of their eyes.

In fact, optometrist at Insight Optical Ciara Devine told Barbados TODAY she has already been seeing an increase in the number of people complaining of some conditions, including dry eyes and eye pain, since the COVID-19 pandemic forced them to work from home earlier this year.

“When we work at the computer screen, our eyes get tired and dry. The reason they get dry is that when we are on the computer screen we tend to blink a lot less. We need to blink in order for our eyes to stay hydrated with the tears,” she explained.

Devine said while there was still a lot of room for improvement, she was pleased to see that a lot more people were coming forward to get their eyes tested, which she believes shows an increased awareness about eye disease.

“We have had a lot of children coming in as well,” she said. “In every country I work, people aren’t aware that children are supposed to have eye exams. I would recommend from age five or earlier if they have a problem, for example, struggling with coordination,” she advised.

“What I would recommend for people who work on the computer screen a lot is the 20/20/20 rule – every 20 minutes take a 20 minutes break and look 20 feet away – just to give your eyes a break, and be more conscious of blinking.”

Devine explained that sitting in front of a computer screen for long hours could easily cause eye strain, pain in the back of the eyes and blurred vision. She said long-sightedness could also become problematic if not caught and treated early.

“Most of the times it means you can see but your eye muscles have to work a lot harder to be able to see up close. It is more problematic when you are doing sustained prolonged work on the computer screen. People who have normally been out and about working and now they are confined to their home on the computer a lot more, if long-sightedness didn’t trouble them before now it is becoming a problem,” she warned.

Devine, who previously worked in her homeland, Ireland, said since coming to the Caribbean in 2015 she found a higher incidence of glaucoma and realised it was not just affecting people over a certain age, as was the case years ago.

“I found that I had to be screening for glaucoma for everyone really, from teenagers. Back in my own country it is for over 40-year-olds,” she said.

Glaucoma, one of the leading causes of blindness, is an eye condition that damages the nerve at the back of the eye and it is often caused by high pressure in the eye. It is not clear how many people suffer from this condition in Barbados currently.

“It is a very slowly progressive eye disease, so you will never know you have it and you will never feel it,” she said, pointing out there were different types of glaucoma.

Devine said she was seeing too many people who came for an eye test for the first time discovering they had end-stage glaucoma.

“That is really heart-breaking. That is why it is so important to have your eye test done early. Glaucoma can lead to blindness but if detected early, then often the ophthalmologist can treat it by simply prescribing drops, which can be ongoing,” she said.

“That is the disease I see most often in the Caribbean. The good news is if you come for your eye test early it can be detected,” she stressed, recommending an annual eye examination.

Owner of Insight Optical Anthony Pilgrim told Barbados TODAY people should look out for signs that something may be wrong with their vision.

One common sign, he said, was pushing reading material further away from the eyes to see it more clearly.

“Your eyes would also get tired. You might not need glasses because you can’t see, but you might need them because your eyes are tired,” said the optician.

He is not satisfied that Barbadian men, in particular, are taking eye health seriously.

“I have found, especially among us men, we are bad when it comes to looking after our eyes. The ladies come, they come religiously when their appointments are due and they do what they have to do, but generally men don’t. It has been an eye-opener how men don’t look after things that are important health-wise,” he said.

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