Children who don’t want glasses should focus on playing outside

Getting outside for just 15 minutes a day could help prevent the rising problem of child short-sightedness.

Children in the UK are twice as likely to be short-sighted than they were 50 years ago, with nearly a fifth of teenagers needing glasses for the condition. 

Previously, experts have suggested that a lack of natural daylight could be to blame, with today’s children more likely to be staring at a computer screen than playing in the park.

Now, researchers have found that 15 minutes of outdoor activity per day could reduce the chances of the condition occurring.

A team from Shanghai Eye Hospital studied 2,976 children with an average age of seven. All wore smartwatches that could tell when they were outside and measure the level of lux (how light it was).

Children in the UK are twice as likely to be short-sighted than they were 50 years ago, the study found (file photo)

None of these children had the condition – known as myopia – before the study and underwent two eye examinations one year apart. Analysis revealed that daily continuous outdoor activity of 15 minutes – along with at least a 2,000 lux sunlight intensity – was associated with less changes in the eye linked to short-sightedness over the course of a year.

A 2,000 level of lux is the equivalent of between overcast and ambient daylight.

Writing in journal Jama Network Open, the team said: ‘Future outdoor interventions for myopia prevention should include recommendations of outdoor exposure.’ The participants spent, on average, 11 continuous minutes outdoors per day. Researchers said the 2,000 lux level is ‘easily attainable’ during the day – even under the shade of trees.

‘A practical recommendation would be to encourage longer time outdoors as much as possible,’ they added.

Another study, from Guangzhou, China, found that the number of children diagnosed with myopia dropped 9 per cent with a 40-minute outdoors regime.