Watching TV & myopia

An excessive indoor lifestyle is the sole reason for the epidemic proportions of myopia, says a study.

A new study has revealed that an excessive indoor lifestyle is the sole reason for the epidemic proportions of myopia in East Asian countries.

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According to the researchers, children who spend most of the time indoors, either glaring at their computer games or glued to the television or read excessively, are most likely to suffer from myopia.

"As kids spend more time indoors, on computers or watching telly, we are going to become just as myopic," Ian Morgan of the Australian National University in Canberra was quoted by New Scientist as saying.

In countries like Singapore, the problem of short sightedness has increased to such an extent that departments like the police are having problems in finding people who meet their requirements of 6/6 eyesight and the number of myopic men in army has gone risen to as high as 80 per cent.

To unravel the reason behind such a high number of myopic cases in this region Ian Morgan and Kathryn Rose from University of Sydney studied 40 cases and have refuted the conventional view that people here suffer from sight problems due to genetic causes.

For instance, 70 per cent of 18-year-old men of Indian origin living in Singapore have myopia, while in India itself the rate is roughly 10 per cent.

"The simplest explanation is that you have a massive environmental effect that is swamping out the genetic influence," Morgan added.