Lockdown linked to rise in child eyesight problems

A RISE in the number of short-sighted children may be linked to increased screen time during the pandemic, a study suggests.

And an Irish optometrist has claimed that homeschooling is also likely to have contributed to youngsters developing eyesight problems.

During lockdown, children spent more time while indoors watching TV or on a computer – which may have prompted a rise in cases of short-sightedness, or myopia, according to research.

Scientists studied the eyes of 1,793 children in Hong Kong, one of the most densely populated cities in the world. Around 700 of the children were recruited to the study at the start of the pandemic, while the rest had already been monitored for around three years. Their ability to see was measured and they filled in questionnaires on their lifestyle, including how much time they spent outdoors and looking at screens.

Around one in five children in the Covid group developed shortsightedness between January and August 2020, compared with one in three of those in the pre-Covid group over a much longer period of three years.

Optometric advisor with the Association of Optometrists Ireland, Lynda McGivney Nolan, told the Irish Daily Mail that the rise in short-sightedness in children has become a ‘global phenomenon’, while other issues such as sudden onset squinting and focusing issues are also on the rise. However, she explained that the blue light emitted from screens is not the source of these issues.

The problem is instead caused by children focusing on something close to them, whether that is a screen or a book. ‘It’s because of the consistent and persistent time indoors, and because of the length of time they’re spending doing close work,’ she said.

‘We’re outdoor creatures. Our eyes are designed to see for distance… we’re not designed to be indoors away from daylight and stuck in front of a book or a device for periods of time.’

She added homeschooling is likely to have contributed to the risk of children becoming shortsighted. ‘I do think they were spending a lot more time doing concentrated close work,’ she said. ‘I would say for definite that the time they spent indoors was all on a screen. Whereas a child in school, they will be indoors but they’re looking at a blackboard, they’re looking at their friend... they are doing things.

‘They are not sitting at the kitchen table with a screen 25cm from their face,’ she said.

The data, collated from the Hong Kong Children Eye Study, was published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology.

The estimated one-year frequency of short-sightedness was 28%, 27% and 26% respectively for six-, seven- and eight-year-olds in the Covid group.

This compared with 17%, 16% and 15% respectively for six-, seven- and eight-year-olds in the pre-Covid group.

These changes coincided with a reduction in the time the children spent outdoors, from around an hour and 15 minutes to around 24 minutes a day, and an increase in screen time from around 2.5 hours to around seven hours per day.

Lead author Dr Jason Yam said: ‘Our initial results show an alarming myopia progression that warrants appropriate remedial action... Collective efforts are needed to prevent childhood myopia, a potential public health crisis as a result of Covid-19. Shortsightedness in children matters.

‘It puts them at risk of developing complications that increase the risk of irreversible impaired eyesight or blindness later in life.’

‘It’s a potential public health crisis’