If Your Child is Suffering from Eye-Strain, the Likely Culprit is Small Screens

February 4, 2020 – Our first full day in Costa Rica has us in a condo at the top of a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean. In this part of the country it is the dry season. The hills are a barren brown and only where there is human interference with nature do you see splashes of green. Interestingly, the dry season is accompanied by trees going into flower. This seems to be a general characteristic of plants in dry zones. When my Christmas Cactus at home is allowed to go dry, it buds with flowers. If I then water too often, the buds drop off. It is amazing how a mind works when out of the everyday.

But I digress from the topic of the day. Myopia is an epidemic in young people and it’s only going to get worse. In the January 18, 2020 edition of The Economist describes just how serious the problem has become in China where 450 million suffer from myopia, short-sightedness. That’s one in three.

The statistics are worse when you look at younger demographics. Some 72% of students between the ages of 12 and 14 have myopia, up from 58% in 2010. And in the age group 15 to 17, more than 70% are myopic. Chinese applying for navy flight school no longer have to have 20/20 vision because there aren’t enough candidates in the country with near-perfect to perfect vision.

When I was young I was reading by age three and by age seven polishing off a couple of books a week. That’s when I complained of eye strain to my teachers who moved me from the back of my Grade 2-3 class to the front row. I then was sent to have my eyes tested and was declared myopic. In my case, my myopia wasn’t an inherited trait. Both my parents didn’t wear glasses until they were middle-aged. My myopia was derived epigenetically, in other words, I altered my eye shape through constant eye strain and was rewarded with a thick pair of lenses.

Although genetics could leave you susceptible to myopia, or for that matter, its opposite, far-sightedness or hyperopia, the contribution your genes make is deemed to be very small. In my case, the susceptibility came purely from indoor activity, namely reading books and music which occupied several hours of each day.

Young people today tend to confine their reading to small screens from smartphones to tablets. Computer gaming and mobile phone apps are seen as the most likely reason for the growth of myopia. So a change in behaviour could possibly lead to a cure.

The government of China all the way up to President Xi Jinping have commented on just how much myopia is endangering the future of the country, calling for a concerted effort to wipe out the condition. China isn’t alone. Similar studies in the United Kingdom and Australia report the same results. But in those countries central-planning to get rid of myopia is far less likely. And even in China where getting into university is seen as key to success, and with all hinging on getting good grades on the single comprehensive state-run exam, it is unlikely that parents will be onboard with some of the changes the country is attempting to initiate.

Chinese educators are being asked to consider no screen days in the classroom. Students are being encouraged to go outdoors more without mobile phones in tow. Eye exams are becoming mandatory for all school-age children. In one school district in Beijing, children get tested twice a year and if they show changes leading to myopia, they are brought in by educators along with their parents for a talk. An hour of outdoor activity each day is being prescribed along with daily 5-minute eye exercises while at their desks. And time limits are being put on children playing video games and using “frivolous” apps. Among the apps are WeChat, and TikTok.

On the Earth 2050 website, there is an article that sums up the worst fears of spreading myopia. It states that the global spread of short-sightedness had all the characteristics of a pandemic impacting almost half the world’s population by that year. In other words, 5 billion of us will have to wear glasses while another 1 billion will suffer from such a high degree of the condition they will be threatened by retinal detachment and complete loss of vision. The article calls for the future world to practice myopia prevention by going out more or standing at a window and looking into the distance.