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Child Proof
Another Reason to Send Kids Outside: It’s Good for Their Eyes
One of the lesser-known benefits of playing outdoors is its ability to prevent nearsightedness
It’s hard to argue with the idea that getting kids outside is important for their health. The American Academy of Pediatrics encourages doctors to “write a prescription for play” and says that outdoor play in particular is important for “motor, cognitive, social, and linguistic” skills, as well as exercise. But another important benefit of outdoor play is mostly ignored: what it can do for kids’ eyesight.
Nearsightedness has become more common over the past few decades, both in the United States and elsewhere, and scientists aren’t sure why. But they do know that sending your kid outside can help prevent it.
An eye that’s nearsighted, or myopic, doesn’t grow proportionally. It’s usually elongated, making the eye shaped more like a grape than a marble. This means light no longer lands precisely on the retina, which sits at the back of the eye like film in a camera, but instead focuses in front of the retina. A person with eyes that are stretched like this can still see fine up close, but objects farther away look blurry.
It’s not clear what makes some people’s eyeballs grow off-kilter. Genetics are a factor — a child is more likely to become nearsighted if they have one myopic parent, and even likelier with two. But genetics alone can’t explain the sudden surge of nearsighted people. In the early 1970s, myopia was estimated to affect about 25% of Americans between ages 12 and 54. By the early 2000s, that number had jumped to almost 42%. “There’s something that’s happening,” says optometrist David Berntsen, PhD, an associate professor at the University of Houston College of Optometry.
Researchers are actively studying and debating what factors are at work. But one clear, consistent message has emerged from the data: Kids who spend more time outdoors are less likely to become nearsighted.
For example, a 2007 study led by Lisa Jones-Jordan, a research professor at the Ohio State University College of Optometry, followed hundreds of kids in the United States between first and eighth grade. It found…
