Optometrist says `near work activities’ increase risk of children developing myopia

An optometrist, Dr Chika Ugagu, has said that “near work activities” increase the risk of children developing myopia.

Ugagu stated this in an interview with the Newsmen on Friday in Jos.

She said myopia is condition in which an individual is said to be short–sighted (when the individual can see objects that are very close but has a challenge viewing objects that are far).

She also defined near work activities as when an individual engaged more in close-up activities such as watching and staying close to the television screen, playing video games, spending lots of time on digital devices such as cell phones, computers and laptops.

The optometrist said it had been discovered that too much near work activities was affecting the sight of children and increasing the incidence of myopia.

She said that myopia became more severe as the patient engaged more in near work activities.

She said that the lifestyle of using digital devices and the pandemic whereby most children used various digital platforms for learning had aggravated the chances of children developing myopia.

Ugagu,therefore, advised that children should engage more in outdoor activities and that screen time activities should be reduced to at most three hours daily.

She also disclosed that environment factors such as dusty and dirty environment also triggered sight defects in children which predisposed them to issues such as allergic conjunctivitis (the inflammation of the lining of the eye due to allergy).

She that traditional practices were also factors that were responsible for eye defects in both adults and children such as the act of putting urine or breast milk in the eyes in a bid to cure an eye disease, which she said, only worsened the condition and could lead to another defect.

The optometrist further said that children could have congenital glaucoma (given birth to with the condition), advising that the only way this could be detected early was when the child went for an eye check.

She said that glaucoma does not have signs and symptoms, so the best way it could be detected was via an eye check.

She advised the public to go for regular eye check-ups, at least once a year.