As schools continue to utilize virtual learning across the world while the fight against COVID-19 continues, could all that time in front of a computer screen be damaging your child’s eyesight? A new study out of China says it’s a strong possibility.
The research published Thursday in the Journal of the American Medical Association – Ophthalmology is admittedly limited in scope, but it showed students who learned virtually had twice the chance of developing myopia, the clinical term for “nearsightedness,” as students who experienced in-person schooling.
Researchers examined first- and second-grade students from 12 primary schools in Guangzhou over the course of two full years, identifying the candidates for the study in November 2018 and conducting the study until December 2020.
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Among the limitations of the study was the relatively small sample size in terms of ages, but the results of the study “indicate that age-specific refractive changes in response to environmental changes during the COVID-19 pandemic were similar among young schoolchildren, and older children appeared to be insensitive to the alteration.”
The study also didn’t study the physical development of the children’s eyes, only how they adapted to the changes in their environment as it pertained to screen usage.
Their conclusion is that children learning virtually at the very least warrant increased monitoring when it comes to their eyesight, and the study’s results should “prompt parents, schools and governmental agencies to recognize the potential value of providing children with outdoor activity time and monitoring how much time is spent on near-work.”