Myopia Epidemic: Kids Urged to Drop Devices and Go Outside — Or Risk Blindness
November 26th, 2015Must see picture of Chinese school desks!
A new global study co-authored by Dr David Wilson of Brien Holden Vision Institute, forecasts that 10 per cent of the world’s population will be at risk of blindness by 2050 if steps aren’t taken to stop myopia turning into high myopia (requiring glasses with a prescription of minus 5 or stronger).
In China, where around 81 per cent of teenagers have myopia, students are being barred from getting too close to their work. Another school has glass walls and as well as glass ceilings to expose children’s eyes to the light.
While about 30 per cent of the risk of myopia is genetic, experts say daily exposure to sunlight can stop the disease from progressing. One Chinese school is locking the doors for two hours a day, and refusing to let children back inside.
Research Credit: DF
” Another school has glass walls and as well as glass ceilings to expose children’s eyes to the light.”
I am all in favour of natural light in classrooms, but it is not a substitute for playing outside where the eyes continuously change focus from near to far and back again.
See:
“The eyeballs are very adaptive while they are developing,” Liu told me. “If we impose a lot of near work on the eyes as they are developing, the eyes will interpret nearsightedness as being the normal state…
…The higher the academic stress, the higher the prevalence and the earlier the onset of myopia,” Liu said, noting there are differences even between school districts in the same city. If spending a certain amount of time outdoors had a significant effect on myopia, we should see prevalence rates vary geographically based on light intensity”
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/05/nearsightedness-and-the-indoor-life/361169/
Nearwork in early-onset myopia.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11818374