Is increased screen time causing visual and eye health problems in children? Helen Gilbert reports.
When COVID-19 sparked worldwide lockdowns in 2020, screen time among children and adolescents soared as they relied on computers and tablets to keep up with their education at home.
Primary school children aged six to 10 recorded the largest increases in screen usage, averaging an extra 83 minutes a day, while screen time rose by 55 minutes for those aged 11 to 17 and by 35 minutes for under-fives, a global analysis of 89 studies found (Trott et al, 2022). Leisure screen time (time not used for work or study) also increased for all age groups, said researchers at the Vision and Eye Research Institute at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), which conducted the review.
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Glaucoma is the second leading cause of irreversible sight loss in the UK and affects over one million people, which is predicted to rise by 100,000 cases to 1.145 million people by 2030*.
The College of Optometrists has published its first issue of Ophthalmic and Physiological Optics (OPO), its flagship international and interdisciplinary research journal for contemporary vision science and optometry, with its new publishing partner Springer Nature this month.