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from the just-need-bigger-books-held-further-away dept.
New research led by scientists at Cardiff University and the University of Bristol found that people who spend more time in education are more likely to develop near-sightedness. Specifically, researchers found that for every year a person spends in education — where they are likely to spend more time reading and typing on computers — there is a rise in myopic refractive error of 0.27 diopters, a diopter being a standard measure of the optical power of a lens. An estimated 68,000 participants were examined using the "Mendelian randomization" (MR), approach which is often used to examine causal effect of a disease in observational studies.
http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/news/view/1199570-study-suggests-education-causes-short-sightedness
https://www.salon.com/2018/06/07/theres-a-scientific-reason-nerds-have-bad-eyesight/
(Score: 4, Interesting) by darkfeline on Saturday June 09 2018, @10:34PM
My personal theory is that it's caused by too much time focusing on close things, e.g. READING. My near sightedness kept getting worse until I stopped wearing my newest prescription glasses.
Example: A child reads in class. Human eyes were not evolved for extended periods of focusing on tiny things up close, the opposite in fact. The child's eyes deform from the continuous strain and they can no longer see at a distance, but they can read more comfortably. Get corrective lenses. The eyes now again have to strain to read. They deform and can no longer see at a distance, but they can read more comfortably. Get corrective lenses. Repeat until the child's eyes fully develop and no longer deform as easily.
Solution? Get the kids reading glasses. Humans weren't evolved for discerning fine detail. We use tools for lots of things, like loupe for examining small objects, it's abnormal that we don't use assistive lenses for reading.
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