The forecasts are dark: with the current trends, by 2050 almost half of the global population could become short -sighted. The causes are manifold, and still in the study phase. But one seems increasingly evident: spending too much time in the face of TV screens, smartphones and computers hurts the sight. To confirm it, a new meta -analysis published in the journal Jama Network Open, according to which every more hour we spend, on average, every day in front of a digital screen would increase by 21 percent the risk of becoming myopi during life.
The research, carried out by a team of scientists from different Korean universities, investigated the results of 45 studies previously published on the subject, for a total of over 335 thousand people involved in the analysis. And the results have a complex link between the time we spend in front of the screens and the risk of developing vision problems.
“Myopia increases significantly when it goes from one to four hours spent on average every day in front of the digital screens, beyond that threshold continues to grow, but more gradually”, explain the authors of the study “. The security threshold could exist, but it is not very high: less than one hour a day. After that there is an increase of about 20 percent of myopia incidence for every additional hour, up to a peak around 4 hours a day, threshold doubles the probability of having vision problems.
According to the authors of the study, the effect of digital screens is independent of that of other activities that require a close vision, such as reading and writing and which, especially in childhood, can in turn compromise visual skills. Digital screens are therefore only one of the risk factors – although perhaps among the most popular – and therefore avoiding the excessive use of smartphones and TVs may not be enough to contrast the increase in the problems of pediatric myopia provided in the next decades.
“The study suggests that limiting itself to reducing the time spent in front of the screens, in favor of other more traditional activities of close viewing, it may not be an effective preventive strategy – reads the study – a more effective approach to the mitigation of the risk of myopia provides to minimize all the activities that use the eye in the close view, and the promotion to their place of activity to be carried out outside”. In short, less smartphones, but also books and comics. And more hours of outdoor leisure.