Around 30% of children under 8 years old use their cell phones every day , which means that their graduation in myopia has increased by 1.75 diopters in the last five years, eight tenths more than people between 17 and 27 years , according to a survey of the Official College of Opticians and Optometrists of Catalonia (COOOC).
This survey, presented on Tuesday in Barcelona, has recorded data of 1,105 children from all over Spain and has revealed that one in three children use their cell phone or tablet daily.
According to the president of the COOOC, Alfons Bielsa, "19% use the screens one or two hours a day" , double what the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends.
Bielsa has revealed that when a person is short-sighted early, that is, when he is young, the probability of having more diopters in the future increases .
"When someone reaches five diopters, the risk of suffering a retinal detachment is increased up to twenty times , and up to fifty the probability of suffering from maculopathies," said Bielsa, who added "that children should be prevented from being so many hours in front of a screen. "
The survey has also revealed alarming data such as that 5.1% of children between 0 and 8 surveyed, through their parents, spend between two and four hours a day in front of a screen, 10% look at the mobile While eating , 9.7% always do it in a restaurant, 5.3% look at some screen in the dark in bed and 2.5% do so frequently.
As for using the mobile, the tablet or other devices in the dark, the vice-dean of the Faculty of Optometry of Terrassa, Mireia Pacheco , explained that "being only twenty centimeters from the screen makes the eye accommodate up to five diopters" .
"Being so close to the screens is not good for anyone, but for a child less, because he is developing and the human being is wise and adapts his vision towards myopia to be able to see better up close, " Pacheco insisted.
Pacheco has added that accommodating the vision permanently can cause irritation and fatigue, which can "cause the child to reject forms of learning, such as reading, to avoid having to force his vision."
He also stressed that children from 0 to 2 years should never be in contact with the screens , those from 2 to 5 a maximum of one hour, and those from 5 to 12 years two hours at most.
Experts who have participated in the presentation of the results of the survey have agreed that "there is evidence that natural light is an inhibitor of the development of myopia, " so they recommend that parents go for a walk with their children or do outdoor activities.
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