Effects of Short-Term Digital and Printed Reading on Eye Focusing and Eye Structure in Young Adults

Effects of 20 Minutes of Digital Versus Printed Near Work on Accommodative Responses, Subfoveal Choroidal Thickness and Axial Length in Myopic and Non-Myopic Young Adults: A Randomized Crossover Study

Status

Active, not recruiting

Phases

Early Phase 1

Study type

Interventional

Source

TCTR

Registry ID

TCTR20260731002

Enrollment

Registered

2026-07-31

Start date

2017-09-01

Completion date

Unknown

Last updated

2026-08-03

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Short-term physiological ocular responses to near work in healthy young adults, including changes in accommodation, subfoveal choroidal thickness, and axial length, with comparisons between myopic and non-myopic participants. Near work, accommodation, accommodative lag, accommodative microfluctuations, choroidal thickness, axial length, myopia, digital reading, printed reading, refractive error, optical coherence tomography, young adults, ocular biometry, crossover study

Interventions

Participants completed 20 minutes of continuous reading using a 13.3-inch MacBook Pro Retina display at a fixed viewing distance of 40 cm, corresponding to an accommodative demand of 2.50 D. The acade

Experimental Behavioral,Active Comparator Behavioral

Digital reading near-work task,Printed reading near-work task

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

All

Age

18 Years to 25 Years

Inclusion criteria

Inclusion criteria: 1. Age 18 to 25 years, 2. Spherical equivalent refraction between minus 8.00 D and plus 1.00 D., 3. Astigmatism less than 1.00 D.,4. Best-corrected visual acuity of 0.00 logMAR or better, 5. Healthy ocular status, 6. Normal binocular and accommodative function, 7. Able to provide written informed consent.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion criteria: 1. Presence of ocular pathology, 2. Previous ocular surgery, 3. Systemic disease affecting vision or ocular measurements, 4. Abnormal binocular vision or accommodative function, 5. Failure to meet the required measurement-quality criteria.

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame
Accommodative lag Baseline and immediately after each 20-minute digital or printed reading condition. Accommodative lag in dioptres, calculated as 2.50 dioptres minus the accommodative response recorded monocularly for 60 seconds at 5 Hz using the Grand Seiko WAM-5500,Accommodative microfluctuations Baseline and immediately after each 20-minute digital or printed reading condition. Root mean square variability in dioptres of a 60-second monocular accommodative recording obtained at 5 Hz using the Grand Seiko WAM-5500, after removal of blink artefacts,Subfoveal choroidal thickness Baseline and immediately after each 20-minute digital or printed reading condition. Subfoveal choroidal thickness in micrometres measured using automated segmentation of a 12 by 9 mm 3D Wide Scan obtained with the Topcon 3D OCT Maestro 2.,Axial length Baseline and immediately after each 20-minute digital or printed reading condition. Axial length in millimetres measured using the IOLMaster 500. Five consecutive acceptable measurements were obtained and averaged at each assessment.	—

Measure

Time frame

Accommodative lag Baseline and immediately after each 20-minute digital or printed reading condition. Accommodative lag in dioptres, calculated as 2.50 dioptres minus the accommodative response recorded monocularly for 60 seconds at 5 Hz using the Grand Seiko WAM-5500,Accommodative microfluctuations Baseline and immediately after each 20-minute digital or printed reading condition. Root mean square variability in dioptres of a 60-second monocular accommodative recording obtained at 5 Hz using the Grand Seiko WAM-5500, after removal of blink artefacts,Subfoveal choroidal thickness Baseline and immediately after each 20-minute digital or printed reading condition. Subfoveal choroidal thickness in micrometres measured using automated segmentation of a 12 by 9 mm 3D Wide Scan obtained with the Topcon 3D OCT Maestro 2.,Axial length Baseline and immediately after each 20-minute digital or printed reading condition. Axial length in millimetres measured using the IOLMaster 500. Five consecutive acceptable measurements were obtained and averaged at each assessment.

—

Secondary

Measure	Time frame
Difference in ocular responses between refractive groups Change from baseline to immediately after each 20-minute digital or printed reading condition. Change from baseline in accommodative lag, accommodative microfluctuations, subfoveal choroidal thickness, and axial length compared between myopic and non-myopic participants.	—

Countries

Malaysia

Contacts

Public ContactSaiful Rosli

Centre of Optometry Studies, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), UiTM Cawangan Selangor, Puncak Alam, Selangor, Malaysia.

saiful2797@uitm.edu.my60193711504

Outcome results

None listed

Source: TCTR (via WHO ICTRP) · Data processed: Aug 10, 2026