 |
| Photo: Depositphotos.com |
Dutch
children have an increased risk of becoming short-sighted because they spend
more time on computer screens and less time playing outdoors, ophthalmic
professor Caroline Klaver says in Wednesday’s NRC.
Half of the people in Europe
in their 20s wear glasses or have contact lenses, Klaver says. And people who
have glasses of -6 or more at a young age have a one in three risk of
developing serious sight problems or even going blind, she told the paper.
Myopia develops when the eyeball grows too long, relative to the focusing power
of the cornea and lens of the eye.
Klaver says short-sightedness is the biggest
cause of blindness and that spending long times indoors reading or behind a
screen increases the risk.
‘We have to ensure that far fewer children develop
short-sightedness by making sure they are outside for two hours a day,’ she
said. ‘That exposes them to a substance [dopamine] which brakes the growth.’
Schools in particular should ensure children have an hour outdoors.
Research by
the Erasmus medical centre in Rotterdam shows that 2.4% of six-year-olds are
short sighted. They were also more likely to have a shortage of vitamin D, to
be overweight and not to play outside.
No comments:
Post a Comment