Children Who Play Outside Have Better Eyesight
Children are at greater risk of becoming short-sighted if they do not play outside and instead stay indoors watching TV, reading or playing computer games research has found.
Research carried out in Australia on 4,000 schoolchildren found that 12-year-olds who spent the most time doing ‘near-work’, such as sitting in front of a computer or TV or reading, and the least time outside had the greatest chance of being near-sighted.
The children who spent the longest amount of time outside had the lowest rates of short-sightedness no matter how much ‘near-work’ they did.
And there were still lower rates of myopia in children who spent a lot of time outside but not playing sport.
Children with low outdoor and high near-work activity had two to three-fold higher risk of myopia than the children who spent the most time outside.
A high level of outdoor activity was defined as more than 2.8 hours a day while less than 1.6 hours was classed as a low level of outdoor activity. The reason for the differences is the intensity of light outside.
In response to intense light, the retina releases dopamine which inhibits eye growth, affecting the shape of the eye.
