Hygienic Characteristics of the Digital Information and Educational Environment and the Risk of Its Mental Health Impacts in Students with Different Degrees of Myopia

Introduction: Today, educational conditions and the lifestyle of students of medical universities, coupled with active introduction of electronic educational resources, information and communication technologies and development of a digital environment, pose a challenge of maintaining psycho-emotional wellbeing of students. This problem is especially relevant among students with myopia since, inter alia, the increasing visual load has a potential adverse effect on their mental and emotional health.

Objective: to give a hygienic characteristic of electronic information and educational environment and to assess its risk on students’ mental health with myopia of varying degrees:

Materials and methods: We assessed intensity of the educational process of 1,100 first to third-year students (aged 17 to 25 years) of the Orenburg State Medical University and analyzed data on the type, frequency and purpose of their using information and communication tools for study and leisure. We also conducted a questionnaire-based survey of 168 healthy students and 138 students with myopia to assess their mental health and determine the type of character accentuation, the anxiety level, and negative emotional experiences in educational and everyday life.

Results: We observed very intensive educational activities of the medical students against the background of the use of electronic gadgets by every second student for educational purposes lasting up to 4.8 hours a day and additional visual load due to the use of a mobile phone by 93.6 % of students to visit social network sites more than five times a day with the total duration for every third person ranging from 25 to 50 minutes a day. We established that the presence and degree of myopia determined the anxious-pedantic type of character accentuation and a 1.3-fold increase in the anxiety level in everyday activities. In educational activities, it resulted in a 1.7-fold decrease in the level of anxiety and a 1.3-fold increase in the level of negative emotional experiences.

Conclusion: We established mental health risk factors of intense educational activities and an extensive use of information and communication tools by the students, including those with myopia, for study and leisure. Our findings prove the necessity of a differentiated approach to hygienic examination and regulation of various types of activities of the educational process in order to prevent the development and progression of myopia in medical university students.

1. Alexandrova IE. Hygienic principles and technology to ensure safety for health of pupils conditions of training in a digital educational environment. Voprosy Shkolnoy i Universitetskoy Meditsiny i Zdorov’ya. 2018;(3):23–33. (In Russ.)

2. Kuchma VR, Tkachuk EA, Tarmaeva IYu. Psychophysiological state of children in conditions of informatization of their life activity and intensification of education. Gigiena i Sanitariya. 2016;95(12):1183–1188. (In Russ.) doi: 10.18821/0016-9900-2016-95-12-1183-1188

3. Harris C, Straker L, Pollock C. The influence of age, gender and other information technology use on young people’s computer use at school and home. Work. 2013;44(Suppl 1):S61–71. doi: 10.3233/WOR-121494

4. Agarwal S, Goel D, Sharma A. Evaluation of the factors which contribute to the ocular complaints in computer users. J Clin Diagn Res. 2013;7(2):331–335. doi: 10.7860/JCDR/2013/5150.2760

5. Grigorenko IN. [Electronic images in teaching a foreign language.] Ekonomika. Pravo. Pechat’. Vestnik KSEI. 2014;(3-4(63-64)):105–110. (In Russ.)

6. Kuchma VR, Teksheva LM, Kurganskiy AM, Petrenko AO. Hygienic assessment of the use of readers in elementary school. Gigiena i Sanitariya. 2014;93(3):57–60. (In Russ.)

7. Pan CW, Ramamurthy D, Saw SM. Worldwide prevalence and risk factors for myopia. Ophthalmic Physiol Opt. 2012;32(1):3–16. doi: 10.1111/j.1475-1313.2011.00884.x

8. Andreevskaya MV, Maryanovich AT. Online learning at medical schools. Rossiyskie Biomeditsinskie Issledovaniya. 2021;6(1):21–30. (In Russ.)

9. Pogorelova IG. The features influencing medical students health. Sibirskiy Meditsinskiy Zhurnal (Irkutsk). 2011;107(8):95–97. (In Russ.)

10. Sukharukova OV, Okhapkina LP, Kozhurina AA, et al. Health status of first-year students at a medical university. Smolenskiy Meditsinskiy Al'manakh. 2020;(4):132–134. (In Russ.) doi: 10.37963/SMA.2020.4.132

11. Tkachuk EA, Mylnikova IV, Efimova NV. Hygienic assessment of schoolchildren’s learning labour intensity. Ekologiya Cheloveka [Human Ecology]. 2014;(6):20–24. (In Russ.)

12. Setko NP, Yasin IA, Bulycheva EV, Aprelev AE. Physiological and hygienic aspects of formation of myopia in students. Zdorov’e Naseleniya i Sreda Obitaniya. 2018;(7 (304)):18–21. (In Russ.) doi: 10.35627/2219-5238/2018-304-7-18-21

13. Gafurova NV. Informatization of education as a pedagogical problem. Sovremennye Problemy Nauki i Obrazovaniya. 2012;(3):193. (In Russ.) Accessed December 8, 2021. http://www.science-education.ru/ru/article/view?id=6199

14. Bezrukikh MM. [School and family-related risk factors, their impact on physical and mental health of children.] Vestnik Prakticheskoy Psikhologii Obrazovaniya. 2011;(1(26)):16–21. (In Russ.)

15. Kuchma VR, Efimova NV, Tkachuk EA, Mylnikova IV. Hygienic assessment of the overwroughtness of educational activity in schoolchildren of 5-10 classes of secondary schools. Gigiena i Sanitariya. 2016;95(6):552–558. (In Russ.) doi: 10.18821/0016-9900-2016-95-6-552-558

16. Ilyin EP. [Work and Personality: Workaholism, Perfectionism, Laziness.] St. Petersburg: Piter Publ; 2011. (In Russ.)

17. Badiev IV. Typology of adolescents’ character accentuations. Vestnik Buryatskogo Gosudarstvennogo Universiteta. 2015;(5):60–65. (In Russ.)

18. Goboeva IS. {Dialog as a basis for pedagogical support of vocational school students.] Sibirsky Pedagogichesky Zhurnal. 2008;(10):242–251. (In Russ.)

19. Sherwin JC, Reacher MH, Keogh RH, Khawaja AP, Mackey DA, Foster PJ. The association between time spent outdoors and myopia in children and adolescents: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Ophthalmology. 2012;119(10):2141–2151. doi: 10.1016/j.ophtha.2012.04.020

20. Kuchma VR, Sukhareva LM, Khramtsov PI. Medical and preventive basics of the safe life of children in the hyper-information society. Rossiyskiy Pediatricheskiy Zhurnal. 2017;20(3):161–165. (In Russ.) doi: 10.18821/1560-9561-2017-20-3-161-165

21. Mirshahi A, Ponto KA, Hoehn R, et al. Myopia and level of education: results from the Gutenberg Health Study. Ophthalmology. 2014;121(10):2047–2052. doi: 10.1016/j.ophtha.2014.04.017

22. Loman J, Quinn GE, Kamoun L, et al. Darkness and near work: myopia and its progression in third-year law students. Ophthalmology. 2002;109(5):1032–1038. doi: 10.1016/s0161-6420(02)01012-6

23. Setko AG, Bulycheva EV, Setko NP. Hygienic characteristic of the intensity of educational process and typology for physiological reactions of the body of each of students with different levels of efficiency. Zdorov'e Naseleniya i Sreda Obitaniya. 2019;(11(320)):56–60. (In Russ.) doi: 10.35627/2219-5238/2019-320-1l-56-60