Researchers from the Australian National University and SydneyUniversity concluded that spending time outside protected children frombecoming short-sighted, after comparing the vision and habits of around700 six-year-old Singaporeans and Chinese-Australians.
Myopia is caused by an eyeball that grows too long. The researchersconcluded that exposure to bright sunlight can help regulate thedevelopment of the eyeball in childhood.
Reading, watching television and using computers were found to havelittle effect on whether children developed sight problems.
Around 30 per cent of the Singaporean children in the study wereshort-sighted, compared with only 3 per cent of the Chinese-Australians.The difference was not in the amount of television watched, books read,or video and computer games played, but in the time spent outside. InSingapore the children spent only about 30 minutes outside each day,while in Australia the children spent on average two hours outdoors.
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