Pandemic lockdown may have increased burden of myopia in young children

The results of a recent study indicated that home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic appeared to be associated with an increased prevalence of myopia in young school-aged children.

Nearsightedness is a common health problem around the world. However, the COVID-19 pandemic may have increased its incidence – not as a direct result of the COVID-19 infection, but because of the increased time children spent indoors for most of the time. 2020 and beyond.

Elise kramer

School closures and the shift to more online classes have meant that millions of children have spent much of their day working on computers instead of being outdoors. While staying at home and learning online has been instrumental in protecting children and their families from COVID-19, it may have had an unintended side effect: a negative impact on the eye health of young people. students.

New data published in JAMA Ophthalmology suggested that containment during the pandemic may have increased the burden of myopia among children 6 to 13 years old in China, with a particularly large increase in myopia among children 6 to 8 years old.

The researchers examined more than 120,000 children from 10 primary schools in Feicheng. They screened children for the presence of nearsightedness each year from 2015 to 2020, and the results were recorded in July 2020. At this point, “a substantial myopic change” was found in the 2020 screenings compared to screenings done in in previous years. Children aged 6 to 8 had the highest prevalence of myopia, with only minimal changes in those aged 9 to 13.

As a result of COVID-19, school-aged children were confined to their homes from January to May 2020, taking online classes instead of going to school in person. This meant that the time these kids spent outdoors was reduced (to none in many cases), while their indoor activities and screen time increased. Spending less time outdoors is known to be a major risk factor for myopia in children.

One of the reasons that young children may have been more affected is that their eyes (and myopia) are at an earlier stage of development. We know that nearsightedness is easier to manage when treatment is started early, possibly because the plasticity of the disease is higher in young children. Beyond about 8 years, the plasticity of myopia decreases and the disease becomes more difficult to control. This theory is supported by the fact that orthokeratology, a specific type of treatment for myopia, may be more effective when started at an earlier age.

What does this information mean for parents of young children? On the one hand, regular exams are crucial, especially during a child’s early school years, and especially if they spend a lot of time indoors or looking at screens.

Young children often don’t know when something is wrong with their vision, so optometrists should educate parents not to wait for children to tell them they are having difficulty seeing. A professional eye exam can reveal vision problems at an early stage, when children’s eyes are more malleable and more likely to respond well to treatment.

Clinicians should also encourage parents to ensure that their children spend a lot of time outdoors and away from screens. In addition to the significant increase in myopia potentially caused by home confinement linked to the pandemic, the prevalence of this disease has increased in recent decades as technology advances and children spend more time in front of screens. Make sure parents encourage frequent pauses from screens to focus on something further away for a while to help the eyes relax and reduce eye strain.

If a child has been confined to the home for a long time during the COVID-19 pandemic, a prompt eye exam is warranted. Current myopia management treatments are effective in slowing the progression of the disease when started early.

For more information:

Elise Kramer, DO, FAAO, FSLS, practice in Miami, Florida specializing in ocular surface disease and regular and specialized contact lens fitting. She can be contacted at [email protected].

Reference:

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