COVID-19 lockdowns may be making more kids near-sighted

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-01-15 03:00

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US and Chinese scientists say being stuck indoors during the pandemic may be affecting some kids' eyesight, making them more near-sighted. They looked at eye tests of more than 120,000 children aged 6 to 13 years from 10 Chinese elementary schools, and say home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with a significant shift towards near-sightedness among children aged 6 to 8 years. The prevalence of near-sightedness increased 1.4 to 3 times in 2020 compared with the previous 5 years, they add.

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Journal/
conference: JAMA Ophthalmology

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Emory University, USA

Funder: This work was supported by grant 17ZXHLSY00020 from the Tianjin Municipal Science and Technology Commission and grant YDYYRCXM-B2018-02LC from Tianjin Medical University Eye Hospital High-Level Innovative Talent Program for Distinguished Scholar (Dr Qian).

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