Investigation of Time Duration Spent on Near Work and Outdoor Activities in Children: Perception versus Real-time Measurements

Abstract

Purpose : It is well documented that increased time outdoors is effective in preventing the onset of myopia (Xiong et al 2017 for a review). Read et al (2014), Verkicharla et al 2017 and Saw (2017) used outdoor trackers to objectively measure outdoor activities in children. In addition to outdoor, the Clouclip^TM device is able to measure near-work activities and we know that more time spent on near work activities is associated with higher odds of myopia (Huang et al 2015 for a review). The aim of this study is to investigate whether parents and children can accurately evaluate the time the child spent at near work and outdoors.

Methods : 24 myopic children aged 8 to 13 years (mean ± SD, 10.83 ± 1.01 years) participated in this study. Their refractive errors (spherical equivalent) ranged from - 0.75D to - 4.00D (- 2.39 ± 0.87 D). In this study, the time at near work (< 60 cm) and outdoor (illuminance > 1000 lux) time was collected by two methods; real behavior measurement collected by the Clouclip^TM (1 measurement every minute) and perception through questionnaire. All subjects were equipped with Clouclip^TM for 2 weeks. At the end of the study, both parents and children were asked through a questionnaire about the amount of time the child spent at near work and outdoors. The time at near and outdoors collected by two methods was calculated for analysis.

Results : Parents underestimated the time their child spent at near work (4.83 ± 2.27 h) as compared with real behavior measured by Clouclip^TM (5.67 ± 1.90 h, P < 0.05). Children also underestimated the time they spent at near work (4.10 ± 1.88 h) as compared with real behavior (5.67 ± 1.90 h, P < 0.05). On the other hand, parents overestimated the time their child spent outdoor (2.10 ± 1.46 h) as compared with real behavior measured by Clouclip^TM (0.92 ± 0.62 h, P < 0.05). Children also overestimated the time they spent outdoor (2.39 ± 1.49 h) as compared with their real behavior (0.92 ± 0.62 h, P < 0.05).

Conclusions : The study demonstrated that both parents and children were not able to evaluate accurately the time the child spent at near and outdoors. Children and parents perception of time spent at near-work was underestimated compared to real measurements and conversely, their perception of time spent outdoors was overestimated compared to real measurements.

This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2018 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 29 - May 3, 2018.