THE IMPACT OF DISTANCE LEARNING DURING HOME CONFINEMENT ON THE INCREASED INCIDENCE OF MYOPIA IN CHILDREN DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Published 2022 - 26th ESCRS Winter Meeting

Reference: FP29 | Type: Abstracts | DOI: 10.82333/j93e-9566

Authors: Sebnem Egriboyun* ¹ , Mustafa Ege Seker ¹ , Ali Riza Cenk Celebi ²

¹School of Medicine,Acibadem University,Istanbul,Türkiye, ²Department of Ophthalmology,Acibadem University Hospital Atakent,Istanbul,Türkiye

Purpose

We investigated the potential impact of increased digital screen time and limited outdoor exposure due to the lockdown measures implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic on the onset of myopia and myopia progression rate in school-aged children in Turkey

Setting

A retrospective cohort study in school aged children (7-18 years old) that visited the ophthalmology clinic between the 1st of January, 2014 and the 1st of May, 2021, some of which had visits both before and after Covid-19 pandemic, were made.

Methods

Two proportion Z-test was conducted to compare ophthalmology clinic admission rates of myopia before and during lockdown. Myopia progression per day in different time periods was also investigated with Mann-Whitney-U test. Effects of gender and age were analysed with Mann-Whitney-U test and chi-square test respectively.

Results

The myopia admission rate before Covid-19 pandemic was found significantly lower than during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown (615/4382, 82/249, respectively ,p< 0.01). However, the difference in myopia progression per day between before and during Covid-19 pandemic was not statistically significant for both eyes (right eye p=0.798, left eye p=0.260).

Conclusion

Myopia admission rate to ophthalmology clinics has increased during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, suggesting the impact of the presence of distance-learning on recent onset myopia. However, a relationship was not established with the initiation of lockdown and myopia progression rate.