Aim: The study aimed to examine the distribution of Accommodative Facility (AF) and Amplitude of Accommodation (AA) and compare the findings with established guidelines. Place and Duration of Study: Mzuzu University, Malawi. Between May and July 2022. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among students at Mzuzu university in Malawi. We recruited 77 students using a stratified random sampling technique. The participants' age ranged from 16 to 35 years of age. We measured AA using the push-up method while AF was measured using +/- 1.50 Diopters (D) flippers. Both techniques utilized black reading material on white background held at 40 centimeters (cm). Next, we measured the accommodation facility by counting the number of Cycles per Minute (c/m).  We utilized the Pearson correlation test and the One-way ANOVA where appropriate. The value of p< 0.05 was considered statistically           significant.   Results: The participants comprised 44 (57.1%) males and 33 (42.9%) females. Monocular AA was 10.04D (SD=2.71) and Binocular AA was 10.51 (3.641). The difference was statistically significant (p=0.04). While Monocular AF and Binocular AF were 9 c/m (SD= SD=1.84) and 8.96 (SD=1.539) respectively but the difference was non-significant (p=0.868). AF and AA were not significantly different between males and females. All the parameters decreased with age. The measured AA was significantly higher than using Hofstetter’s formula. Conclusion: The study provides a cut-off value for practitioners diagnosing Accommodation anomalies. However, indices in the study differ from the well-established guidelines hence practitioners should endeavor to perform the clinical assessment instead of relying on equations.

Background Globally, the usage of digital screens is on the rise. Students are among the most users of smartphones in pursuit of academic endeavors. However, digital screens can increase the incidence of various ocular problems. Aim The aim of the study was to examine changes associated with accommodation parameters following the usage of smartphone use among university students. Methods This was a cross-sectional study conducted at Mzuzu University. We recruited 77 undergraduate students using a stratified random sampling technique. Then, we measured AF and AA before and after using a smartphone for 30 minutes while reading N8 optotypes held at 40 cm. We measured AA using the pushup method and recorded the result in diopters and AF using flippers and recorded cycles per second. We entered the data in SPSS version 25. Paired t-test was used to investigate pre and post-smartphone use measurements. We ran a person correlation test to analyze the relationship between age and change in parameters. A one-way ANOVA was used to analyze the association with gender. We considered the value of p < 0.05 statistically significant. Results The change between pre and post-smartphone use was statistically significant across all parameters. According to age, all the parameters increased significantly with an increase in age. However, there was no significant association with gender across all parameters. Conclusion Smartphone usage has an effect on the amplitude of accommodation and accommodative changes. The effect of smartphones on accommodation parameters increases with increasing age. Nevertheless, there are no gender-related differences in accommodative changes following smartphone use. Therefore, elderly users of digital devices in universities should visit eye care practitioners for a full eye examination to enable a better experience with digital devices.