According to an American study, the cases of myopia in Chinese children would have increased after the first confinement, but this is not for the reasons believed.
Strict confinement had negative consequences for the child, such as disturbed sleep or even a lack of socialization. But according to an American study, published in the journal JAMA Ophthalmology, there would be an increase in cases of myopia in children because of the use of screens, but also due to the fact of not being able to go out during the first confinement. .
This is the finding in schools in Feicheng, China, on 120,000 children aged between 6 and 13, after the first confinement from February to May 2020.
An increase of 10 to 15%
The Chinese children had returned to school in May, as in France. They then had exams to assess their eyesight. The results then showed an increase in myopia cases of 10 to 15% while in 2019, “Only 5.7% of the 6-year-olds in the study were nearsighted”. According to this study, one in five children aged six now suffer from myopia.
This increase is said to be linked to the use of screens, but that is not the main reason. The lack of light and the lack of access to the outside would have accelerated myopia in children, which "is a logical continuation" containment, according to ophthalmologist Franck Earith, who commented on the study.
Indeed, China has taken drastic measures to stem the covid-19 crisis: first strict containment, temperature measurement, population control, drone surveillance as well as forced isolation for the infected. Measures which have had a positive impact on the death toll, but which have not been without consequences.
For the moment, there has been no study of this scale in France. A means that would however be useful to determine the negative and positive points of confinements.