Impact of COVID-19 on myopia progression in children
Keywords:
myopia, progression, spherical equivalent, biometry.Abstract
Introduction: Myopia is considered a global health problem by the World Health Organization due to its increasing prevalence and is expected to affect 52% of the world's population by 2050.
Objective: To determine the progression of myopia during the COVID-19 pandemic with respect to the pre-confinement period.
Methods: A descriptive and ambispective study of a series of 12 patients treated at the Pediatric Ophthalmology Clinic of the Cuban Institute of Ophthalmology "Ramón Pando Ferrer" before the pandemic and who visited the hospital during the COVID-19 confinement period for follow-up, was carried out. The variables evaluated were age, gender, family history of myopia, screen hours, spherical equivalent and biometry.
Results: The average age was 9.7 years and 58.3 % of the patients were females. Seventy-five percent of the patients had a family history of myopia and the estimated time in front of the screen was 5.3±0.8 h per day. The medium biometry increased over time from 23 mm in 2019 to 25.5 mm in 2021. The difference in medium pre-COVID-19 spherical equivalent was -0.89 and -0.84 for right eye and left eye, respectively. In the epidemic stage, an increase to -1.97 and -1.72 was perceived.
Conclusions: Increased use of digital media due to confinement has caused myopia progression.
