Covid-19 pandemic-induced lifestyle changes such as significant decrease in outdoor time and increase in screen time is taking a toll on the health of the eyes of schoolchildren. It is causing myopia, also known as near-sightedness or short-sightedness, among children, researchers have cautioned.
Myopia is a condition in which the shape of the eye changes, causing light rays to bend (refract) incorrectly, focusing images in front of, instead of on the surface of, the retina.
Though there has been a rise in cases of Myopia for the past few decades, during Covid-19 crisis the trend has accelerated. Globally, it’s projected that by 2050 half of the world’s population will be myopic.
In their study published online in the British Journal of Ophthalmology, the researchers have warned eye care professionals, and also policy makers, educators and parents, that collective efforts are needed to prevent the potential public health crisis among kids as a result of Covid-19.
Though the study was conducted on school students in Hong Kong, the results are applicable on almost all school kids world over, including India where schools and colleges have been shut down for the past one year, in a bid to control the march of coronavirus. Children have been particularly badly affected, with outdoor activities restricted or banned and socialising severely limited.
Like Hong Kong, India too has among the world’s most densely populated cities, with most residents living in high-rises and small apartments with little outdoor space.
Some 709 of the children were recruited to the study at the start of the pandemic (December 2019 to January 2020) and were monitored for around 8 months; 1084 children had entered the study before the start of the pandemic and had been monitored for around 3 years.
The children’s visual acuity--the ability to see clearly--was measured and they filled in questionnaires on their lifestyle, including how much time they spent outdoors and on close work, at study entry and during subsequent clinic visits.
Around 1 in 5 (19.5 per cent) of the children in the Covid-19 group developed short-sightedness between January and August 2020, compared with around 1 in 3 (37 per cent) of those in the pre-Covid-19 group over a period of three years.
And after factoring in age, gender, length of monitoring period, parental short-sightedness, and how much time was spent outdoors and on close work, the numbers of new cases of short-sightedness were higher among children in the Covid-19 group.
The estimated 1-year incidence of short-sightedness was 28 per cent, 27 per cent, and 26 per cent, respectively, for 6, 7 and 8 year olds in the Covid-19 group, compared with 17 per cent, 16 per cent, and 15 per cent, respectively, for 6, 7, and 8 year olds in the pre-Covid-19 group, as per the study.