As many people have become acutely aware of during the recent lockdowns due to COVID-19, spending time outdoors has clear health benefits.
Spending too much time in front of a screen can be at minimum tiring for the eye, if not related to other conditions, especially in the developing eye.
One study reports2 that “it is well known that the various ocular components undergo growth and maturation in younger children,
and thus, the ocular growth patterns may be more sensitive to environmental influences including outdoor time during this period.” Children aged 11-12 spend most of their time in school.
Because of this, many school districts have made attempts to increase light exposure in students Time outdoors and myopia.
This is a trend that has some significant documentation from Asian countries.
Dr. Bruce Lan, a professor of ophthalmology at Aier Eye Hospital Group Guangzhou, Guangdong, ลาวสามัคคี วีไอพี
China, has done an extensive study of the correlation between myopia and outdoor time among school children in China.
During the Singapore Optometric Association-Asia Optometric Congress (SOA-AOC) e-symposium 2021,
Dr. Lan discussed the data he collected regarding students in rural, suburban and urban environments in China.
He says that lifestyle is also a major player in the development of myopia Time outdoors and myopia.
Students who learned in rural environments had higher light exposure and lower instances of myopia compared to students who learned in an urban environment.
He has created a “visual behavior index” which in the future will be a better way to measure the effects of light exposure on myopia through data collection.
Where do we go from here? It’s important to consider that though there is evidence to suggest that outdoor time
and light exposure is associated with lower instances of myopia, it’s still not a treatment for the condition.
In the review from Xiong et al., they state that “the dose– response analysis indicated that while an increase
in the time spent outdoors could result in greater protection against myopia onset,
it did not result in slowing the progression of myopia in eyes that were already myopic.”
There seems to be a trend: Children who spend more time outside during crucial stages of development tend to have less instances of myopia.
However, there is no clear data that shows increased time outside can treat myopia. Therefore myopia is still a great health risk.
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