HEALTH: Playing outside may prevent near-sightedness later in life

Send your kids outside — or risk spending hundreds on eyeglasses.

People who soak up higher ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation from sunlight as teens and young adults are less likely to become nearsighted, according to a JAMA Ophthalmology report.

Researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine analyzed more than 4,100 people ages 65 and older from the European Eye Study. And they found that an increase in UVB exposure between ages 14-19 and 20-39 was associated with a 30% reduced risk of myopia, better known as nearsightedness. UVB exposure is directly related to sunlight exposure from time spent outdoors.

Myopia, if left uncorrected, is one of the most common causes of vision loss across the globe, and it’s becoming more common. About 40% of the U.S. population has myopia, and half the world’s population will become short-sighted by 2050, the journal Ophthalmology recently reported.

The Four-Eyes have it.

Research has shown that myopia is most common among those in urban areas with higher socioeconomic status and education. In fact, the old stereotype of nerds and bookworms sporting thick lenses may not be so far off the mark. This study also found that those people who spent the most time in school, with highest level of education, had twice the odds of being near-sighted.

This backs a 2015 report published in the journal Nature that also noticed a correlation between children’s exposure to bright, outdoor light, and how the rise in near-sightedness rises with longer schooling time. Almost 90% of students in China and Asia are nearsighted, and the average Shanghai teen spent 14 hours a week doing homework.

The latest study wasn’t designed to determine a cause-and-effect relationship, so the authors note that more research is needed to understand why exactly UVB exposure appears linked with stronger eyesight. “As the protective effect of time spent outdoors is increasingly used in clinical interventions, a greater understanding of the mechanisms and life stages at which benefit is conferred is warranted,” they wrote.

But in the meantime, it probably wouldn’t hurt to open indoor kids’ eyes to the great outdoors.