From Sam Edge, Ringwood, Hampshire, UK
The prospect that half the world will have myopia by 2050 might be good news for opticians, but is alarming for the rest of us. The fact that encouraging children to spend more time outdoors helps avoid myopia adds to the list of benefits of doing so, reinforcing the need not to shackle them to the house (16 November, p 40).
There is also evidence that sending children to formal school too early in life results in worse academic outcomes. Countries like Sweden and Estonia don’t start formal school until around the age of 7 while the UK and many others start at 4 or 5. Given children may spend more time inside at school, I wonder if there is a correlation with early-onset myopia.
Another possible factor is that more parents need to work, so more preschoolers are in nursery where the logistics make it harder to allow them much time outdoors.
