Do walks in the fresh air protect children from myopia

Walking and playing in the fresh air will save children from myopia, which has recently reached epidemic proportions. Australian scientists came to this conclusion.

Myopia is more and more common among children, as they spend too little time outdoors. Scientists advise parents to pay attention to the fact that it is necessary to take their children for a walk, and not to leave them for a long time in front of the TV, computer or phone screens.

This problem was studied by researchers from the University of Technology in Sydney /Australia/. During the research, they were able to establish that the number of children in different countries of the world suffering from myopia or myopia is constantly growing.

And most of the children develop the most severe form of this disease.

At this stage of the progression of myopia, distant objects appear blurred to the person who observes them, and only if he is close to them does he see their shape.

According to experts, a severe form of myopia over time can lead to absolute blindness.

The results of the study by Australian scientists showed that myopia is most prevalent among children from those countries where the educational regime is the most intensive.

In these countries, school-aged children spend too much time over textbooks and in front of computer monitors, so they have no time at all to walk and play in the fresh air.

As the author of the study, Professor Catherine Rose, notes, the high prevalence of myopia among children is actually a serious and already socially significant problem.

External factors are of great importance in the development of myopia in children. This is evident because the highest incidence of myopia has been found in only a few countries and only in the last few decades, reminiscent of the epidemic explosions characteristic of infectious diseases.

During the study, the scientists compared the data of children of Chinese origin living permanently in Sydney and Singapore, respectively.

As a result, it turned out that Australian children who were not on such an intensive educational program were significantly less likely to develop myopia.

And the number of children from Singapore was practically 29%. In Australia, myopic children were only 3%, because there children spend 13 hours a week playing in the fresh air. In Singapore, children spend an average of about 3 hours a week outdoors.

In this regard, it should be noted that these days about half of all people have smartphones.

And if a few years ago the user rarely looked at the screen when using his phone, now a person spends at least 2 hours a day looking at the screen of the mobile device to understand what is written there.

From this, according to scientists, myopia begins. And the longer a person spends in front of the monitor, the faster this myopia progresses.

A study conducted by British scientists showed that usually students and young people – the main users of smartphones – keep their mobile devices 30 centimeters from their face, and some even 18.

At the same time, people keep ordinary books and newspapers 40 cm away from their eyes on average.

As a result, myopia will develop as early as a person’s 20s. Ophthalmologists call this process epigenetic or epidemic screen myopia.