Home Confinement Induces Myopic Shift in Children

 From Review of Optometry:

Spending less time outdoors and more time looking at screens during prolonged school closures brought on by the pandemic, school-aged children are at risk of experiencing a substantial myopic shift due to the home confinement resulting from COVID-19, according to a new study published in JAMA Ophthahlmology.

“Younger (aged six to eight years) children’s refractive status may be more sensitive to environmental changes than older children, given that they are in an important period for the development of myopia,” the researchers wrote in their paper.

The researchers noted a substantial shift in myopia prevalence in the 2020 screenings compared with preceding years for younger children (Table 1). These differences were minimal in children aged nine to 13 years.