The purpose of the present study is to compare central and peripheral refraction between children of 4-6 years old user and non-user of smartphones and /or other electronic screens.

In this cross-sectional study, 106 children aged 4-6 years old were enrolled in two groups of user (56 children: 34 boys and 22 girls) and non-user (50 children: 30 girls and 20 boys) of smartphones and /or other electronic screens. The user group used smartphones and /or other electronic screens for 1-3 hours a day for at least one year and non-user group either did not use these screens or used less than half an hour occasionally and not every day. All children have visual acuity of at least 20/20 with or without correction and showed no other ocular or systemic diseases. Both groups were evaluated for central refraction and peripheral refraction up to 20° eccentricity in nasal and temporal directions and up to 10° eccentricity in superior direction using the Shin-Nippon K5001 autorefractometer. The outcome measures were compared with SPSS statistical software.

Comparing the findings did not show any statistically significant difference in terms of central and peripheral refraction in superior, nasal and temporal eccentricities between the user and non-user groups (P>0.05).

According to the results of the present study, it concludes that using smartphones and/or other electronic screens for 1-3 hours a day do not show any effect on central and peripheral refraction in children with low range of refractive states.