Abstract
Purpose :
Myopia prevalence is increasing dramatically in the United States and around the globe. The estimates from World Health Organization (WHO) indicates that the gap between myopia prevalence in United States and East/ South East Asia will close. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the possibility to intervene in the onset of myopia in a group of children in Kentucky, USA, using personal mobile devices.
Methods :
In this Study, for 3 months we remotely and continuously monitored the working distance (near work) and the ambient face illumination level of the children, twenty subjects aged from 6 to 13 yrs old, used tablet devices (Amazon Fire HD 8) at home. Myopia App (Vision App ©) remotely monitored the face-device distance (near work) and the ambient face illumination level under which the children used the devices. The subjects were split into two groups; intervention and non-intervention. In the intervention group, the device’s screen would turn dark forcing the subject to maintain the distance at least 30 cm from the device, while in the non-intervention group the device just recorded the time, illumination and distance data without any warning. Refraction and axial lengths were measured during the entire period of study (3 months) in two-week frequency.
Results :
In the non-intervention group, about 70% of the subjects viewed the devices from the distance lesser than 30 cm , and 85% were working in an ambient light less than 100 lux, with an average of only 40 lux. In the intervention group, about 80% of the subjects had a working distance of greater than 30 cm from the eye, and about 57% were working in an ambience light lesser than 100 lux. The accommodative demand difference between the non-intervention and the intervention group was about 0.75 D.
Conclusions :
The remote device measurement of children give insight into the habits of device-eye distance and ambience light. Intervention group, were the device is forced to be kept at a greater distance than 30 cm. Nevertheless, it is significant to note that the ambient light was found to be under 100 lux on an average for both groups. This study represents the beginning of a long-term recompilation data which will allow us to think objective measurements of near work and illumination and myopia progression in children.
This is a 2020 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.