Staying indoors is the main cause of myopia?

Short-sightedness or myopia is increasing among kids all over the world. Researchers say children’s inadequate exposure to bright light outdoors contributes to it, according to a recent news feature in Nature magazine.

Dr Bhujang Shetty, Director of Narayana Nethralaya in the city says, “Myopia among children is certainly increasing. There is a natural tendency in the body to improve any organ that is being put to good use. Our ancestors who hunted had good long distance visions. Slowly we began to read and developed near vision. Our eye automatically adjusted itself to near distance vision.”

“There are many causes of myopia and not being outdoors long enough could be a contributory factor. We are not sure what comes first, the reading habits or short-sightedness. Is it because kids can’t see a ball clearly that they begin to take greater interest in reading or read a lot?” he adds.

“The bright side is that these kids have a high IQ”, he says.

Kathryn Rose, an Australian scientist, did a study on more than 4,000 children at primary and secondary schools in Sydney for three years and her team found that children who spent less time outdoors had a greater chance of being short-sighted. Close work might still have some effect, but what seemed to matter the most was the eye’s exposure to bright light. And what about the children who spent more time outside and did not spend less time with books, screens and close work?

“We had these children who were doing both activities at very high levels and they didn’t become myopic,” says Rose.

Indian schools believe in homework and children spend at least two hours per day doing homework. Students in the UK spend only five hours a week doing homework and US students spend six. The Nature news feature says this is less than Asian children. So do our schools cause a rise in short-sightedness?

Gayathri Devi, the principal of Little Flower Public School says, “Homework varies from school to school. Parents seem to want it... They are also happy when kids are preoccupied.”

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