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 “Lifestyle in early youth is very much associated with onset of
myopia,” Dr. Caroline Klaver of Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam
told Reuters Health in an email interview. “Not being outside, and
performing lots of near work will increase risk a lot.”
While factors like being highly educated and of non-European
heritage have traditionally been linked to nearsightedness, the new
study suggests that how young children spend their time is likely to
be the underlying source of these differences, the study team writes
in the British Journal of Ophthalmology.
The researchers looked at 5,711 children in Rotterdam who have been
participating since birth, along with their mothers, in a long-term
study. At age 6, the children had a full medical examination and 2.4
percent were found to have myopia, or nearsightedness.
The researchers used statistical techniques to analyze a wide
variety of factors, including social and economic aspects of the
household, ethnicity, lifestyle, parents’ education levels,
children's’ activities and any links between these and the
likelihood a child would be nearsighted.
The study team found that myopic children spent less time outdoors,
had lower levels of vitamin D, had a higher body mass index and were
less likely to play sports than children who weren’t nearsighted.
While being of non-European descent, having a mother with a low
education level and low family income were also associated with
myopia, the researchers found that lifestyle factors explained most
of these risks.
The study was limited by the low number of children with myopia and
the lack of information about parents’ nearsightedness - “a
well-known myopia risk factor,” the authors note.
“Differences in myopia prevalence between ethnic groups that have
commonly been assumed to be down to genetics may in fact be due to
differences in lifestyle between ethnic groups,” Dr. Jeremy
Guggenheim, an optometry professor at Cardiff University in the UK,
told Reuters Health in an email.
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“The new study and other recent work suggests that this preventative
effect of time outdoors is beneficial even at very young ages, e.g.
3 - 6 years-old,” said Guggenheim, who studies the causes of myopia
and sometimes collaborates with Klaver’s team, but was not involved
in the current study.
“Too much close work, such as reading and using hand-held devices,
may also be a risk - although the jury is still out on this
question,” he added.
To help prevent myopia, Klaver said, parents should have children
play outside for 15 hours a week, and limit “near work” to no longer
than 45 continuous minutes.
“It’s important to keep in mind that this type of study can never
pin-point the precise causes of myopia in the way that is possible
using purpose-designed clinical trials,” Guggenheim said.
“Nevertheless, the risk factors that were identified in the new
study fit neatly with what has been learned in recent years from
such trials.”
“Basically this study adds very nicely to the evidence that we
already see from many other studies and many other countries that
there is definitely a connection between outdoor activity and myopia
in children,” said Susan Vitale at the U.S. National Eye Institute.
“The main thing to remember is that if parents have any concerns
about their child’s vision it’s very important that they get a
dilated eye exam from a health care professional,” Vitale said.
Regular eye care is the most important thing people can do to
maintain their eye health, she added.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2v8zqbW British Journal of Ophthalmology,
online June 12, 2017.
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