Indoor, outdoor activities may influence myopia progression

TAMPA, Fla. – Girls who participate in weekly sports or outdoor activities are more likely to decrease their myopic progression, while boys who spend more weekly hours reading see an increase in progression.

Study author Karla Zadnik, OD, PhD, of the Ohio State University, reported here at the American Academy of Optometry meeting, “There are some interesting associations with children’s activities and myopia status. Those who do not develop myopia tend to participate in sports or outdoor activities.

“We took it one step further and looked at progression,” she said.

The multi-ethnic study evaluated 806 children already enrolled in the Collaborative Longitudinal Evaluation of Ethnicity and Refractive Error (CLEERE) Study. The new study found that sports in general had no effect on myopia progression, but that age and gender may play a role.

“Specifically, for every 10 hours more weekly sports a girl's parent reported, there was an associated 0.06-D decrease in her annual myopic progression,” the study said. “For weekly reading hours, there was a statistically significant effect for boys in terms of both the continuous and quartile-level variables, on the order of a 0.14-D increase in myopic progression for every 10 reading hours.”

Dr. Zadnik said many parents and practitioners often want to know what will help slow or stop myopia progression. The results from the study, though interesting, were not conclusive, she said.

“You neither have to grab their books from them, nor toss them outside and make them do sports,” she said.