The BBC World Service’s CrowdScience website has a couple of interesting pieces about Short-sightedness and myopia control.
The link below is to a video that they have produced showing some of the measures that are being used in Singapore to try and reduce childhood Myopia.
Singapore’s measures to reduce short-sightedness
This is a clip from the longer podcast
Are Screens Bad For My Child’s Eyes
I am a big advocate of the benefits of natural light and in reducing screen time and I have been very proactive in telling my young patients to try and get at least 14 hrs per week outside but as any parent know it is very difficult for a teenager (and often even younger) to be parted from their smart phones/tablets/laptops.
When I speak to my young patients who are doing lots of studying about what they do when they take a break from the revision or homework – almost all of them tell me that they will go straight on some form of social media – this may be a mental break from the Battle of Passchendaele or from conjugating Latin verbs but it will not give the eyes a rest.
They do look very skeptical when I suggest that a break should be going outside – without their devices. I have had one parent suggest to me that they feel it would take surgical removal to take away the phone from their 15 year old child.
Currently Atropine is not licensed for myopia control use in the UK. But as has been mentioned in previous blog posts we do use OrthoKeratology how do you solve a problem like myopia
and the new mi-Sight soft contact lens miSight Myopia Control options for Myopia control.