Myopia in short sightedness is related to genetic and environmental factors. There is ongoing interest in ways to prevent of reduce risk of myopia in children. Atropine has become commonly used by paediatric ophthalmologist. There is also ongoing evidence that outdoor light exposure can have a protective effect on the development of myopia.
The following article was published in August issue of "Ophthalmology".
“Myopia Prevention and Outdoor Light Intensity in a School Based Cluster Randomised Trial”. Wu et al. Ophthalmology 2018 August.
The group in Taiwan studied 693 children in grade 1 from 16 different schools. They were divided into two groups – the intervention group spent at least 11 hours per week outdoors vs the control group. The results showed that there was significantly less development of myopic shift (trend towards myopia) (0.35D vs 0.47D) and lengthening of the eyeball compared to the control group. Also, longer time spent outdoors was even more protective. The light levels deemed significant was at least 1000 lux (such as covered outdoor area), which are not very bright conditions vs outdoor full sun (>10 000 lux). They also looked into at 30/10 rule which meant for every 30 minutes of near work, the students had 10 minutes break. There was no significant difference between this group vs the control.
So perhaps more time outdoors - even under a shade!
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