In Focus: Lockdown’s impact on myopia

A study published in January this year has demonstrated the links between pandemic-related home confinement and rates of myopia in children. Conducted in Feicheng, China via optical school screening programmes, the study made use of 194,904 test results collected over six consecutive years.

The study found that confinement at home due to the pandemic appeared to be associated with a substantial myopic shift in children. In children aged between six and eight the prevalence of myopia increased by up to three times in 2020 compared to results from the previous five years. Compared to screening results from 2015-19, these children were, on average, -0.3 dioptres more myopic.