Abstract
Purpose :
Previous studies investigating the effects of physical activities and screentime in children often involved a relatively small population, and the findings have been contradictory. We performed a population-based cross-sectional study to investigate the effects of physical activity and screentime on the retinal vessel caliber of children in Hong Kong by a validated deep-learning system.
Methods :
All participants were aged 6 to 8 years children from the Hong Kong Children Eye Study and received comprehensive ophthalmic examinations and retinal photography. Data on physical activity, screentime, and potential confounders were obtained from a validated questionnaire. A validated deep-learning system (SIVA-DLS) was used to automatically estimate central retinal artery equivalent (CRAE), central retinal vein equivalent (CRVE), and arteriovenous ratio (AVR) from retinal photographs.
Results :
10348 subjects were analyzed for screentime. After adjusting for gender, age, right eye axial length, body mass index, mean arterial pressure, family income, and retinal vessel caliber of the contralateral eye, increase in screentime was associated with narrower CRAE (β: -0.018; 95% CI: -0.031, -0.006; P = 0.004), wider CRVE (β: 0.025; 95% CI: 0.013, 0.038; P < 0.001) and smaller AVR (β: -0.043; 95% CI: -0.066, -0.020; P < 0.001). Subgroup analysis of girls showed that screentime was associated with narrower CRAE (β: -0.029; 95% CI: -0.047, -0.011; P = 0.002), wider CRVE (β: 0.030; 95% CI: 0.012, 0.048; P = 0.001) and smaller AVR (β: -0.058; 95% CI: -0.092, -0.025; P < 0.001). Subgroup analysis of boys showed screentime was associated with wider CRVE (β: 0.021; 95% CI: 0.004, 0.038; P = 0.014), but not AVR or CRAE.
7219 subjects were analyzed for physical activity. Increase in physical activity was associated with narrower CRVE (β: -0.013; 95% CI: -0.035, -0.001; P = 0.039) and greater AVR (β: 0.032; 95% CI: 0.001, 0.064; P = 0.046), but not CRAE. Subgroup analysis of boys or girls did not show association between CRAE, CRVE or AVR and physical activity.
Conclusions :
Increase in screentime was associated with narrower CRAE, wider CRVE and smaller AVR, especially in girls. Increase in physical activity was associated with narrower CRVE and greater AVR. To evaluate the effect of activity level on retinal vasculature in children, screentime may be considered a better parameter than physical activity.
This abstract was presented at the 2023 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans, LA, April 23-27, 2023.