In China, the number of 6-year-old children with myopia tripled between February and May 2020. An effect of confinement linked to the Covid-19 epidemic.
- In 2019, only 5.7% of six-year-olds in the study were nearsighted, but in 2020, one in five six-year-olds has nearsightedness.
- Lack of daylight and poor posture while reading or consuming screens are to blame.
- An American study estimates that half of the world’s population will be nearsighted by 2050.
“It’s a logical sequence”, comments ophthalmologist Franck Earith. A Chinese study published on January 14 in the medical journal JAMA Ophthalmocology reveals that the number of 6-year-old children with myopia tripled after the first confinement, between February and May 2020. The researchers point to the lack of access to an exterior as the main reason for this increase, whether it is a garden or a piece of terrace, which deprives children of daylight.
One in five 6-year-olds suffer from myopia
Daylight is essential for the proper functioning of the retina since it allows greater production of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that directly influences it. Researchers conducted eye tests around the time schools reopened in June 2020 on more than 120,000 children aged 6 to 13 attending 10 elementary schools in Feicheng, China. They compared the results with those of previous years and noted an increase in myopia in young children of 10 to 15%. “In 2019, only 5.7% of six-year-olds in the study were myopic, but in 2020 one in five six-year-olds had myopia“, they noted. Beyond 9 years, the researchers no longer observe any notable difference compared to previous years.
The other explanatory factors for this increase in child myopia are to be found in the consumption of screens, which rose sharply during confinement, and in the poor posture of children during reading or when they look at screens. “The Chinese have done several studies on myopia and have shown that the risk increases when children work in the evening with dim light.continues Franck Earith. With confinement, this phenomenon has been exacerbated. Since they don’t go out, the children play on the screens, especially the tablet. They have their noses glued to the screen and when they are not on their screen, they read but here too their eyes are very close to the sheet.”
Half of the world’s population will be nearsighted by 2050
To fight against myopia, the ophthalmologist pleads for more education on the part of parents and teachers so that children adopt a better posture. The dangers for the child are not only to become nearsighted but also to have a hunched back. “The difficulty is not to tell the child to stand up straight, but to find a way to motivate him to stand up straight.he acknowledges. When they look at a screen, they should only be 20 cm away. They must have their arms outstretched so that the screen forms a right angle with their arm and forearm. When they write, it’s the same. They should have the elbow on the desk and the arm should be perpendicular to it and the eye should be in the crease of the thumb, not lower. These postures must become automatic.”
Projections concerning the evolution of myopia are not reassuring. A study published on February 11, 2016 in the journal Ophthalmology, who has studied the evolution of myopia in the population since the 2000s, projects that half of the world’s population will be myopic by 2050.”This trajectory is almost impossible to avoidadmits Franck Earith. People spend their time on their computer.” In the study, scientists believe that due to lack of exposure to daylight, myopia could become the number one cause of blindness worldwide.
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