Myopia (near-sightedness) is already an emerging public health problem in both urban and rural school going adolescents in India. With the Covid-19 induced impact of digital screen time being feared to cause its progression., Ophthalmologists from the Dr RP Centre of AIIMS, Delhi, are mulling a study in this regard to frame corrective steps.
Dr JS Titiyal, Chief of RP Centre, AIIMS, Delhi, said there have been complaints of Myopia progression among children. “But we do not have exact data for India. The results could be alarming. We are working on a strategy to assess the extent of the progression stage,” he told The Pioneer.
It is important to study the habits that increase Myopia among children who have been left to rely on digital devices to continue with their education.
Uncorrected Myopia can result in an increased number of blindness, and the risk of retinal detachments, glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration while an increase in Myopia could lead to many not having access to services for prescriptions, thereby increasing amblyopia.
Doctors point out that among the risks to eye health associated with the use of digital devices are unstable binocular vision (using both eyes adequately to create a single visual image), eye strain, uncorrected refractive error and dry eyes.
Health experts advise that kids should spend time outdoors, especially in early childhood, as it can slow the progression of nearsightedness.
According to a review paper, published in the Journal of School Health and led by Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), various research studies showed a consistent picture of increased digital screen time for children and adolescents across the countries.
The review also reported that “children and adolescents often use several devices at once, for example to browse social media on their phone while watching content on another device. Switching between devices increases the strain on the eye by 22 per cent, as this entails switching distances between different devices, forcing the eyes to adjust.”
The WHO has also raised alarm that the prevalence of myopia is increasing at an alarming rate; 1.89 billion people in the world have myopia.
According to a study published in the PloS One journal by Indian doctors in 2020 there is an increasing trend of myopia in India over the last four decades. It showed “crude prevalence of myopia over the last four decades is 7.5 per cent in the 5-15-year age group, being 8.5 per cent and 6.1 per cent in urban and rural school going children respectively.”