Pandemic deteriorated students’ eyesight: Study

NEW DELHI: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a detrimental impact on the lives of students. 

Not only has it impacted their academic year but changed their mode of learning, forcing them to be glued to the screen. According to a study published on Thursday, September 16, young students might have accelerated their rate of eyesight deterioration during the pandemic. 

Jama Opthalmology published the study based on annual eye exams conducted by the Sun Yat-sen University School of Public Health amongst 2000 students in primary schools from Guangzhou, China between 2018 to 2020. 

The study found 13 per cent of second-grade students developed near sightedness by 2019 and the number increased by 20 per cent in the next year. They concluded that younger students, below nine years of age, are more susceptible to environmental effects on their vision. 

Dr Carlos Emmanoel Chua, President of Philippine Society of Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus, said that the pandemic had a drastically negative impact on children’s vision for the increased amount of screen time mandated by remote learning.