10/10/2024
🧒 Children, love your eyes! 👀
✨ World Sight Day 2024 ✨
This year, World Sight Day brings our attention to good eye care habits in children. In today’s digital world, one dilemma that many parents often face is whether to give their children more screen time. “Screen time” includes engaging in a variety of activities, such as watching television, using the smartphone and other digital devices, including laptops and tablets. These activities easily grab the attention of children. However, over-consumption of screen time may bring unwanted effects to their eye health.
For one, prolonged screen time can cause digital eye strain in both adults and children. Symptoms of digital eye strain include dry eyes, watery eyes, double vision and light sensitivity. Taking frequent breaks to look at distant objects during the usage of digital devices can help alleviate the symptoms. Children should be reminded of the 20-20-20 rule: the need to take 20 seconds-long breaks, to look at a faraway object approximately 20 feet away, after every 20 minutes of screen time.
For children in particular, myopia remains a challenging condition to manage and is often a huge concern amongst parents. Myopia progression typically occurs during the years when the child is in Primary school. If uncontrolled, high myopia can result, which can in turn lead to eye problems that can affect vision later in life. The association between the amount of screen time and the development or progression of myopia is currently not conclusive, although some studies have demonstrated a likely correlation.
This possible correlation may be explained by greater screen time translating into lesser outdoor activities and greater frequency of engaging in near work. Previous studies have shown that less outdoor activities and more near work may result in increasing myopia. Hence, simply reducing the time spent on digital devices may have little effect on controlling myopia if children are not sufficiently exposed to outdoor activities in the daylight. Studies have also shown that outdoor activities in the daylight increase dopamine release, which in turn inhibits the progressive axial elongation of the eyeball, hence slowing myopia progression.
Also, keep a lookout for signs such as squinting, head tilts and/or symptoms such as “I can’t see clearly”, “The words are too small”, that children may present with. An eye examination is never too early for the young ones!
This short article serves as a reminder to all of us, whether clinicians, caregivers, teachers or parents – let us do our part in encouraging healthy eye care habits and safekeeping the sight of our children and for our future generations!
Special thanks to Dr Bryan Ang and Dr Francine Yang for their contributions towards this article!
Article by Ms Jasmine Chua, Senior Optometrist at Eye Institute - Tan Tock Seng Hospital
