October 15, 2021 By Dwight Akerman, OD, MBA, FAAO, FBCLA A major international study published in one of the world’s leading medical journals has revealed a link between screen time and higher risk and severity of myopia in children. The open-access research, published in The Lancet Digital Health, was undertaken by researchers and eye health experts from Singapore, Australia, China, and the U.K. The authors examined more than 3,000 studies investigating smart device exposure and myopia in children and young adults aged between 3 months and 33 years. The authors used the gold-standard approach — a comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis — to collect all the published research on the link between smart device screen exposure and myopia. After analyzing and statistically combining the available studies, they revealed the most compelling evidence to date implicating digital devices, particularly screen time, as a risk factor for myopia in children. The study’s authors reviewed over 3,000 published scientific papers using strict inclusion criteria and found 33 articles from 14 countries across Asia and Europe that investigated a link between digital devices and myopia to include in the analysis. They discovered that the majority of these studies reported that exposure to digital screens (including longer periods of screen time and earlier age of first screen exposure in children) was significantly associated with a higher risk of myopia, an increase in the severity of myopia, and greater axial elongation, which is the primary anatomical change that results in the onset of myopia. When combined through statistical modeling, the findings from all the available studies showed that, overall, high levels of smart device screen time were associated with almost a 30% higher risk of myopia. When excessive computer screen time was added, this increased to nearly 80%. This critical research emphasizes the need for eye care professionals to continually educate children about proper environmental and visual hygiene behavior. Abstract Association Between Digital Smart Device Use and Myopia: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis Joshua Foreman, Arief Tjitra Salim, Anitha Praveen, Dwight Fonseka, Daniel Shu Wei Ting, Ming Guang He, Rupert R A Bourne, Jonathan Crookston, Tien Y Wong, Mohamed Dirani Purpose: Excessive use of digital smart devices, including smartphones and tablet computers, could be a risk factor for myopia. We aimed to review the literature on the association between digital smart device use and myopia. Methods: In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we searched MEDLINE and … Continue reading Global Evidence Links Digital Device Screen Time with Myopia