Why lockdowns worsen children's myopia (and how to fix it)

Guest of Mélanie Gomez and Jimmy Mohamed in the program "Sans Rendez-vous", Dominique Brémond-Gignac, head of the ophthalmology department of the Necker University Hospital, in Paris, returned to children's myopia.

And she explained in particular that this vision disorder exploded with the confinement.

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By 2050, 50% of the population will be nearsighted.

And if the causes of this vision disorder are known, we now know that confinement and confinement have also played a role in the youngest.

According to the head of the ophthalmology service at Necker University Hospital in Paris, myopia in children has even exploded in recent months.

Guest of Mélanie Gomez and Jimmy Mohamed in

Sans Rendez-vous

, Doctor Dominique Brémond-Gignac came back to this phenomenon, and explained how to try to curb it.

>> Find all of Sans rendez-vous in replay and podcast here

Screens and lack of light

With the confinement linked to the Covid-19 health crisis, the eyes of our children have not been spared.

Dominique Brémond-Gignac observed it during his consultations.

But a study in Asia was even more revealing.

"We were based on more than 120,000 children and we showed that there was a major increase in myopia during confinement." 

And for the specialist, two reasons explain this explosion of vision disorders in young people.

"First of all, the children were more in front of the screens, in particular school at home, videotapes etc. Then, they did not go out into the light of day. And these are two aggravating factors of myopia."

Reduce accommodative phenomena

With the current context, Dominique Brémond-Gignac admits, it is difficult to limit the contact of children with screens.

But she advises for example to ask them to look elsewhere than their tablet every ten or twenty minutes, in order to reduce the accommodative phenomena.

Another way to limit damage is to ensure good luminance around them.

"Looking at a screen in the dark is the worst for the eyesight because there is a strong contrast. The eye is very drawn and adapts a lot, so it promotes myopia."

This advice also applies to adults, when they use their smartphone or telework on their computer.

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Finally, the head of the ophthalmology department recommends that children be taken out as much as possible, so that their eyes are simply exposed to the outside light.

While not forgetting of course to protect them from the sun.