Rise in childhood short-sightedness linked to increase in screen time and time spent indoors during COVID-19
More time spent indoors during the COVID-19 pandemic may have caused a significant rise in childhood short-sightedness, according to a new Hong Kong study. Published in the British Journal Of Ophthalmology, the findings were based on the ongoing Hong Kong Children Eye Study, which continually researches the eye conditions of children aged six to eight.
The study found that 19.5 per cent of the 709 children recruited at the start of the pandemic (between December 2019 to January 2020) developed short-sightedness over the course of eight months.
The overall estimated one-year incidence of shortsightedness for COVID-era six-year-olds was 28 per cent – much higher than the 17 per cent found in children studied pre-pandemic.
The researchers note that these changes coincided with a reduction in the time the children spent outdoors – from around 75 minutes a day prepandemic to 24 minutes during the pandemic.
Screen time among the children also drastically increased during this period, from two and a half hours a day, to seven hours.
The authors highlight that this data relied on questionnaires, which could impact the accuracy of the research. Also, as it was a local study to Hong
Kong, the researchers couldn’t say whether the same results would be seen in children in the UK and other countries.
“Despite all these insurmountable study limitations, our initial results still show an alarming myopia progression that warrants appropriate remedial action,” the researchers concluded.
James S Wolffsohn, professor of optometry at Aston University, who did not take part in the research, told BBC Science Focus: “During the epidemic, lifestyles have changed, such as the amount of time spent viewing digital screens, homeschooling and the duration of time spent outdoors. At least nine peer-reviewed published studies – not including this new Hong Kong study – have identified an increase in myopia progression during the pandemic.”
Fortunately, though, the effect may not be permanent. “One study found this myopic progression was reversed partially after lockdown, suggesting that both eye focus spasm and structural changes contributed to this accelerated rate,” explained Wolffsohn.