The paradox of education and the aggravation of the situation due to the lockdowns. The trend can be reversed in three ways (to be implemented immediately)
Between the 80s and 90s the parents of Singapore they began to notice a disturbing change in their children. Overall, the lives of the people in that small nation were improving enormously: access to education in particular was transforming a generation, paving the way for prosperity. But there was also something far less positive: the kids were becoming shortsighted
. E no one was able to reverse the trend as the BBC tells in a long dossier. Today Singapore has a myopia rate of around 80% in young adultsso much so that it has earned the title of capital of myopia.
But what happened in Singapore is happening all over the world. Countries with seemingly completely different lifestyles are united by this surprising phenomenon: skyrocketing myopia rates. In the United States, about 40 percent of short-sighted adults, up from 25 percent in 1971. Rates have risen similarly in the UK. But the situation is even more serious among teenagers and young adults in North Korea, Taiwan and mainland China, where prevalence rates vary between 84% and 97%. In Europe, at the age of 9, 12% of the population is already myopic; it increases to 18% at 15 to reach 24% in adulthood. Much epidemiological literature has confirmed this trend for years and if things do not change
by 2050, half of the world’s population will be short-sighted
as an Australian study states.
At first glance the idea of a short-sighted world may not seem like a big deal. After all, if you can’t see well from a distance, the solution exists: the glasses. But ophthalmologists warn of this simplification: lin fact, myopia is one of the main causes of visual impairment and blindness
. Myopia is not entirely benign because when it exceeds five diopters the problems related to this visual defect increase: some pathologies are typical of myopic people, especially at the retinal level, for this reason it is good to become aware of the problem and investigate strategies to limit it confirms Paolo Nucci, full professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Milan. To make matters worse the fact that now i children are becoming short-sighted before the typical age of 8-12. And the sooner you become nearsighted, the more likely you are in adulthood to encounter a severe vision defect, which could cause more serious eye problems such as glaucoma, retinal detachment, cataracts and myopic maculopathy.
The paradox of education
But how can this global vision crisis be explained? Genetics comes into play only to a small extent. While a family history of myopia increases the child’s risk of developing it, a purely genetic case of myopia is rare. They are believed to be much more significant i lifestyle factorsin particular llack of time spent outdoors and the spending more and more hours focusing on nearby objects such as books or electronic devices. We know that the accentuated close-up activity induces changes in the eye, even if the mechanisms by which this happens are not yet completely clear, comments Paolo Nucci.
Education, which is absolutely positive in children’s lives, has unintentionally worsened the spread of myopia. There is a substantial difference in educated and unschooled populations, Nucci- stresses. The classic example is that of Taiwan than its neighbors Philippines. The two countries are separated by less than 500 kilometers but these two realities have a very different incidence of myopia: in Taiwan, where people study for many hours a day, there is a rate of 70% at 12 years, while in the Philippines, where very low schooling, at the same age the rate is less than 10%. There is therefore an important difference in a very close geographical context.
Other studies in Israel have compared populations of children who study in Orthodox schools, where the hours on books are plentiful, and students who attend secular schools and between the two there is an important difference in the incidence of myopia. Still other works confirm that in rural India it is much less shortsighted than in urban India. All these epidemiological studies tell us that school activity linked to greater myopia. Of course, education itself, that is, strengthening one’s knowledge and skills, does not cause eye health problems and has positive repercussions on health in general. The “culprit” is the way in which the children are educated, spending long hours in classrooms indoors, with their eyes on books and tablets, behavior that seems to constantly damage eye health. Education has been shown to cause nearsightedness he tells the BBC
Ghirbani-Mojarrad, lecturer in ophthalmology at the University of Bradford in the UK. For each school year completed, the level of myopia increases. The paradox that reading and studying is good for children, and their well-being can be measured. But countries like Japan, Korea, China, Hong King and Singapore that have achieved outstanding educational success also have very high rates of myopia.
The socio-economic status
Income level also appears to correlate with myopia rates. Like education, higher income is generally associated with greater well-being in children, but not for eye health. The richer we get, the more we protect our children from being outdoors because they have other things to do like playing the piano, watching TV or studying, he tells the BBC Nathan Congdonprofessor of eye health at Queen’s University Center for Public Health in Belfast.
Literacy effect
In low-income countries, myopia rates tend to be lower. In India and Bangladesh, for example, the rate of myopia among adults is around 20-30%
, but things are changing. In Africa, for example, myopia was relatively rare, but the prevalence of childhood myopia has increased rapidly over the past decade. Furthermore, low-income countries may lack the resources to diagnose and correct vision defects in children, resulting in a huge impact on their lives. As literacy rates improve in these countries, the problem of nearsightedness could increase, unless you move with a great deal of effort to secure eye exams and glasses.
The consequences of global lockdowns: quarantine myopia
However, the time spent in school does not seem to be the root of the problem, as the lockdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic have shown. Rather the problem is staying indoors. In fact, schools around the world closed during the pandemic, but children’s eye health deteriorated further. The kids stayed indoors and spent countless hours staring at screens, following online lessons, or watching TV. Other forms of entertainment such as going out for a ride to the park or playing sports have disappeared. Due to the lockdowns, experts are very worried about children between the ages of four and six, who have spent most of their lives at home.
Data from China shows that the lockdowns have indeed dealt a severe blow to the eye health of young children. Before the pandemic, in the years 2015-2019 the rate of myopia measured among six-year-olds reached 5.7%
. In June 2020, after 5 months of home confinement, the myopia rate in that age group soared to 21.5% and scientists have christened this new phenomenon quarantine myopia. And precisely because of the quarantines for the pandemic, myopia is becoming a problem even for countries where they have never been, and this also applies to those areas where children played a lot outdoors and suddenly found themselves confined. .
The differences between tablets and books
In China, where the problem is very much felt, also because myopia may have repercussions on the future workforce in a number of industries and services (we only think of airplane pilots), they have long been on the hunt for effective strategies. However, a solution has not yet been found. The recommended (and low-cost) eye exercises have proved insufficient in preventing long-term myopia. Always in China state limited time for video games for childrenI really do there is no conclusive evidence on the link between time spent in front of a screen and myopia. The difference between a book and a tablet is mostly related to the level of “immersion” explains Nucci. The activity on a tablet is much more engaging and hypnotic, consequently it is much easier to spend more time with an electronic device than with a book, and it is not only valid for children, underlines Nucci who points out: The fact that there is a relationship between myopia and luminance to be demonstrated, but it is certain that a child will spontaneously spend many more hours in front of a tablet than on a book.
Possible strategies
Other strategies studied by the oriental world are machines to relax the eyes, magnetic therapy, supplements, but nothing yet scientifically proven. For now the simplest solution to limit myopia within everyone’s reach and not for nothing technological: spend more time outdoors. Being outdoors – adds Paolo Nucci – our eyes make less effort and tend to look from afar, with the result that they are reactions related to hyper accommodation, a phenomenon related to close-up activity, subside a little. The exposure to ultraviolet radiationmoreover, it would stimulate the dopamine productiona neuromediator which, among its various functions, also has that of inhibiting metalloproteases, enzymes that make the sclera (the opaque part of the outer tunic of the eye, ndr) more yielding and therefore more prone to cause an elongation of the eyeball and therefore myopia.
There are also two other possible strategies, supported by scientific literature, to control the evolution of the visual defect:use of low concentration atropine eye drops in et prepuberale e the use of special lenses based on peripheral defocus up to 18 years. Paolo Nucci also talks about it in an editorial just published in Graefe’s Archive for Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology. The eye drops with a low concentration of atropine – explains the professor – stimitate the production of dopamine, which in turn, with an indirect mechanism, causes a stiffening of the sceral tissue and thus prevents the worsening of myopia. They are also available special lenses based on peripheral defocus. These are lenses that, as it were, fool the brain into believing that the eye has already grown enough, thereby slowing down the elongation of the eyeball and, consequently, the increase in myopia.
What Parents Can Do
So what are the alarm bells that parents should pay attention to? Nucci answers again: The child in general approaches objects to identify them or often asks the classmate or teacher what’s on the board. The flawed positions of the boss are also to be regarded with suspicion, which I know in three out of ten casesno related to visual problems as well as the child’s tendency to squint to focus on distant objects. The position “glued” to the television is less significant, because it is a frequent choice of the child, who tends to isolate himself from the world around him by approaching the screen. However, in order not to run the risk of not recognizing any visible disturbances, it is better not to miss the recommended checks: at birth, especially if there are family eye diseases, at 3, 6 and around 10 years when myopia generally develops.
October 22, 2022 (change October 22, 2022 | 15:28)
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