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The way we watch TV could reveal the health of our eyes, according to a new study.

Researchers from City University London recently discovered that eye diseases could be detected by how people gaze at television. New research reveals that mapping people's eye movements while they watched a film could help diagnose diseases like glaucoma.

Researchers said the latest findings are important, as many people have undiagnosed glaucoma. They believe that the research could help quicken diagnosis and prevent blindness and permanent eye damage by helping health professionals diagnose and treat patients earlier.

The latest study involved a group of 32 elderly people with healthy vision and 44 patients with glaucoma. Researchers had all participants undergo vision examinations and measured disease severity in patients with glaucoma.

Afterwards, participants were asked to look at three unmodified TV and film clips on a computer as their eye movements were tracked. Researchers then used the eye movement data to create detailed maps that could identify symptoms of glaucoma.

"These are early results but we've found we can identify patients with glaucoma by monitoring how people watch TV. This could make a huge difference in detecting or monitoring a disease which currently results in one in ten of all blindness registrations in the UK and about a million NHS appointments a year for those with the disease. Once the damage is done it cannot be reversed, so early diagnosis is vital for identifying a disease which will continue to get more prevalent as our population ages," researcher David Crabb, a professor of Statistics and Vision Research, said in a news release.

"Early diagnosis and treatment can stop people losing their sight, so we're very pleased that this proof-of-principle eye movement study opens the door to developing a new clinical test for glaucoma," Dr. Dolores M Conroy, Director of Research at Fight for Sight, said in a statement.

The findings are published in the journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience.