Can reading books and working at the computer lead to myopia?

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

The ophthalmologist answers.

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Long-term work at close distance from the eyes can lead to a spasm of accommodation, and if this spasm is not removed, it will lead to myopia. Is it true?

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You've probably heard that if you focus on nearby objects for a long time and often, for example, sitting on the phone or reading a book, this can lead to myopia (myopia). But prolonged visual stress is not the direct cause of myopia, but only one of the risk factors, and not the most important one.

And the spasm of accommodation and myopia are unrelated phenomena. It's just that in the CIS countries, for some reason, they walk together and make up one big myth that “the eye muscle can be somehow overextended, and it is because of this that you will have myopia”. But this is not the case.

What is the Difference Between Myopia and Accommodation Spasm

Myopia is when, due to an abnormality of refraction, the image is focused not on the retina of the eye, but in front of it. This is most often due to the increased length of the eyeball. A spasm of accommodation is a strong contraction of the muscle, which is responsible for the contraction of the lens. And this is a completely different genesis of reduced vision. For example, unlike myopia, this spasm is corrected not with glasses, but with special drops that relax the muscle.

The very same spasm of accommodation takes only 3% Spasm of accommodation among all the problems with accommodation. It occurs only in children with concomitant neurological complaints and is very rare. Therefore, you should not think that any myopia is, first of all, a spasm, which should be tried to heal before wearing glasses.

Why does myopia occur?

A systematic review of The Association between Near Work Activities and Myopia in Children studies shows that prolonged and uninterrupted visual activity does increase the risk of developing myopia, but only slightly and only in children. And when the child grows up, the progression of myopia stops. This happens at the age of 14-16, sometimes later - at the age of 21.

But there is not enough scientific evidence on the onset of myopia in adulthood. This issue is poorly understood because myopia usually appears in childhood. But after 20 or 30 years this happens very rarely. Most likely, a genetic factor plays a role here.

Therefore, of the six risk factors for myopia, long-term visual load is in the last position. Human heredity, race and amount of time outdoors, socioeconomic status and urbanization play a primary role.

So the harm of gadgets and any prolonged visual load is greatly exaggerated, and it can be easily leveled. Just walk outside more every day during the day. And when working for a long time, there are constant breaks, they are more important than reducing the total amount of working time nearby.