National Eye Health Week - child health

It’s National Eye Health Week (19 – 25 September)

One of the things we need to focus on is children’s eye health, in particular short-sightedness (myopia) in children.

Risk factors for short-sightedness in children

Just like in lots of other aspects of our health, we know about ‘risk factors’ – elements of our health or lifestyles that can increase or decrease our risk of developing certain health conditions.

Some of the things that affect our eyesight can’t be helped – for example, if we have a parent who wears glasses, we’re more likely to need to wear glasses. One of the reasons it’s important to think about the health of our eyes, though, is because there are lots of things we can do to keep our eyes healthy.

Did you know that the more children get outside to play, the less likely they are to develop short-sightedness? The risk factors for myopia are well-known, but the number of people, including young people, who are becoming short-sighted is increasing all the time. One of the causes we know of is near-work – when we spend a lot of time looking at things very close-up, we cause strain on our eyes that can lead to long-term changes.

Close-up work and short-sightedness

This kind of damaging near-work includes the time we spend looking at screens for work or entertainment, especially close-up screens like or smartphones, tablets and computers. Most of us use this kind of technology a lot, but not everyone knows how damaging it can be for our eyesight, especially for children’s eyesight.

There is a very clear, direct link between the amount of time children spend playing outside and the health of their eyes. Time spent outdoors and NOT looking at screens can reduce our children’s risk of becoming short-sighted.

Modern technology has given us some wonderful tools for work, play, and entertainment, and they’ve become an important part of our lives. Close-up screen time isn’t going away anytime soon, so we all need to remember it’s important to have time away from screens, ideally getting a little fresh air too! Minecraft will still be there afterwards.

If you’re concerned about your child’s eye health, find support from local services here.

Grzybowski, A., Kanclerz, P., Tsubota, K., Lanca, C., & Saw, S. M. (2020). A review on the epidemiology of myopia in school children worldwide. BMC ophthalmology, 20(1), 1-11.

Rose, K. A., Morgan, I. G., Ip, J., Kifley, A., Huynh, S., Smith, W., & Mitchell, P. (2008). Outdoor activity reduces the prevalence of myopia in children. Ophthalmology, 115(8), 1279-1285.

Saw, S. M., Chua, W. H., Hong, C. Y., Wu, H. M., Chan, W. Y., Chia, K. S., ... & Tan, D. (2002). Nearwork in early-onset myopia. Investigative ophthalmology & visual science, 43(2), 332-339.