Here's How You Can Improve Your Child's Eyesight

A recent study has found that spending more time outdoors can help prevent myopia, or nearsightedness.

HealthDay reports that a recent study done in China has found that spending more time outdoors under the sunlight may help lower the risks of myopia, or nearsightedness, developing in kids' eyes. The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

According to the researchers, the condition of nearsightedness among children has dramatically increased in some areas in East and Southeast Asia in recent years, and it is also rising in other places, such as Europe and the Middle East. 

As earlier research revealed that more time spent outdoors could help fight against and reverse this trend, the researchers wanted further study its efficacy, and focused on observing impacts on first-graders from 12 participating schools in China, for over three years. Participating students numbered around 1,900, aged at around 6 or 7 years old.

Half of the participating schools assigned their first-graders an additional 40-minute period that enabled them to spend time outdoors, while the other half didn't. Their parents were also encouraged to give them more outdoor exposure outside of school hours.

Results showed that students who spent more time outdoors had a lower prevalence of nearsightedness compared to those who did not. Of those who spent more time outdoors, only 30 percent developed the condition, while 40 percent of those who did not spend more time outdoors developed it.

According to NBC news, although the study revealed such effects, it wasn't as big as the researchers hoped for.

The research team, led by Dr. Mingguang He of the Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center in Guangzhou, hoped for an effect that is bigger than what they found.

"Our study achieved an absolute difference of 9.1 percent in the incidence rate of myopia, representing a 23 percent relative reduction in incident myopia after three years, which was less than the anticipated reduction," they wrote.

"However, this is clinically important because small children who develop myopia early are most likely to progress to high myopia, which increases the risk of pathological myopia," they added. As such, the study already helped prevent myopia in some of the kids that were included in the study.

The researchers also noted that although parents were encouraged to give their kids more outdoor exposures, some of them didn't. They explain that with more time spent outdoors, sunlight and activity might help protect a child's eyesight.

Michael Repka, professor of ophthalmology and pediatrics at John Hopkins University School of Medicine, added that more studies should be made, this time also considering the type of outdoor activity that the child should have.