A recent report published in the scientific journal, Nature reported rising incidences of myopia in children and young adults which is threatening to reach ‘epidemic proportions.’
East Asia in particular has seen an unprecedented increase in myopia with 90 per cent of teenagers and young adults affected.. This growing problem has prompted researchers to investigate further and challenge the traditional view that myopia is caused by too much reading or study work when the child is young and the eyes are still developing.
Research conducted in 2007 at Ohio State University College of Optometry in Columbus found that the time children spent outdoors and their exposure to bright sunlight had a protective influence on eyesight, leading them to conclude that light stimulates the release of dopamine in the retina which blocks the elongation of the eye during development.
Additional research from the Australian National University in Canberra estimated that children need to spend about three hours a day under light levels of 10,000 lux to be protected against myopia – akin to being underneath a shady tree wearing sunglasses on a bright sunny day. Classrooms and offices usually offer no more than 500 lux and in parts of Europe, the United States and East Asia, where there is a high myopia prevalence, children are often outside for only one or two hours at most.