TRUE! More Playtime...Less Myopia

Photo Credit: Eric Lewis

Yes, what you've read is true! It now appears that the more time children spend outdoors the less likely they will become nearsighted.

As America's obesity epidemic continues its expansion, more and more children are growing up chubby. This news creates another powerful reason to get your kids outside and burn some of those excess calories.

A newly published report from the University of Sydney, Australia, examined two large groups of children: 6 year-olds and 12 year-olds. That's important because myopia (nearsightedness) usually has its onset and greatest progression during school years.

All children received precise refractions after their eyes were fully dilated. This cycloplegic refraction permitted the examiner to accurately measure every speck of refractive error in these children.

Detailed questionnaires were then given to the parents. This survey wanted to know how much time the child spent in school, at play outdoors, reading, computing, video gaming, and other visual activities. Now, since it was Australia the survey also asked about indigenous activities such as bush walking! Statisticians then went back and correlated data from the questionnaires to individual refractions.

Here's what they found, mate!

12 year-old students who logged the greatest amount of time outdoors had the least amount of myopia. Bookworms who rarely bush walked were far more likely to become nearsighted by age 12.

Vision researchers are still in the dark trying to identify explanation for these results. We've known that excessive accommodation in youth contributes to myopia and long-term use of atropine eyedrops paralyzes accommodation and halts the myopic shift. Of course, not much accommodation takes place outdoors in the sun. Bright sunlight shrinks the pupil leading to a greater depth of focusing and less image blur. Additionally, we know that light-stimulated retinas release the powerful neurotransmitter dopamine, and dopamine is a known inhibitor of eyeball growth. Eyeballs physically become myopic when they elongate, so anything that halts elongation of the eye, like elevated dopamine, could theoretically prevent myopia from developing.

Slather them with sunscreen then get your children outside today, and keep them out there until dinnertime. What a bright idea!

SOURCE: Ophthalmology, August 2008, pages 1279-1285.

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