The pandemic blockade may have exacerbated the burden of myopia in young children

Findings from recent studies have shown that home arrest during the COVID-19 pandemic appears to be associated with an increased prevalence of myopia in younger school-age children.

Myopia is a common health concern around the world. However, the COVID-19 pandemic may have increased its incidence, not as a direct result of COVID-19 infection, but because children spend more time indoors most of the time after 2020. there is.

Elise Kramer

With schools closed and more online courses, millions of children are now working on computers instead of going out. Learning online at home helped protect children and their families from COVID-19, but it may have had unintended side effects. It adversely affects the eye health of young students.

New data published in JAMA Ophthalmology The blockade during the pandemic exacerbated the burden of myopia in children aged 6 to 13 in China, suggesting that myopia in children aged 6 to 8 may have increased significantly.

Researchers examined more than 120,000 children from 10 elementary schools in Feicheng. Every year from 2015 to 2020, children were screened for myopia and the results were recorded in July 2020. At that point, the 2020 screening showed a “significant change in myopia” compared to the previous year. Children between the ages of 6 and 8 had the highest prevalence of myopia, with very few shifts between the ages of 9 and 13.

With COVID-19, school-age children were trapped in their homes from January to May 2020 and took online courses instead of going directly to school. This means that these kids spend less time outdoors (often not at all) and more indoor activity and screen time. Less time spent outdoors is known to be a major risk factor for myopia in children.

One reason young children may have been more widely affected is that their eyes (and their myopia) are in the early stages of development. We know that myopia is easier to manage if treatment is started early. This is probably due to the higher plasticity of the symptoms in young children. At about 8 years of age, myopia becomes less plastic and difficult to control. This theory is supported by the fact that a particular type of myopia treatment, orthokeratology, may be more effective if started at an earlier age.

What does this information mean for parents of young children? For one thing, regular exams are important, especially when children are young, and especially when they spend a considerable amount of time indoors or looking at the screen.

Young children often don’t know when they have vision problems, so optometrists need to educate their parents not to wait until they find it hard to see. Professional eye examinations can reveal vision problems in the early stages when the child’s eyes are more adaptable and more likely to respond well to treatment.

Clinicians should also encourage parents to allow their children enough time to leave the screen outdoors. In addition to the significant increase in myopia that can be caused by pandemic-related house arrest, the prevalence of this condition has increased over the past few decades as technology advances, and children are in front of the screen. Spend more time in. Parents are advised to take frequent breaks from the screen and focus on a distance away to relax their eyes and reduce eye fatigue.

If the child has been trapped at home for an extended period of time during the COVID-19 pandemic, a quick eye examination is required. Today’s myopia management treatments are effective in slowing the progression of the disease if started early.

For more information:

Elise Kramer, OD, FAAO, FSLS, A clinic in Miami, Florida, specializing in ocular surface disorders and regular and specialized contact lens fittings. She can be contacted at [email protected].

reference:

King J et al. JAMA Ophthalmol.. 2021; doi: 10.1001 / jamaophthalmol.2020.6239.