Written By: Bhavyajyoti Chilukoti | Published : October 11, 2014 11:06 AM IST
October 13 is World Sight Day.
With the rising incidences of various diseases like heart disease and diabetes in adults, there has been an alarming increase in the number of kids suffering from eye problems. This health problem in kids is attributed to changing lifestyles, unhealthy eating habits and rapid urbanization in addition to spending more time indoors. According to a recent study conducted at Advance Eye Hospital and Institute, Navi Mumbai by Dr Vandana Jain the main reason for this problem is increased use of computers, video-games and phones. Here are some of the key reasons why vision problems are known to rise in recent years
Along with this, what s more surprising about this problem is that more than 20% of school children suffer from vision problems and most of them are not aware of their condition. And knowing about the condition is particularly more important as early diagnosis and treatment of vision problems is crucial to maintain eye health.
One of the most common vision problems encountered by ophthalmologists is uncorrected refractive errors that include myopia (short-sightedness), hypermetropia (long-sightedness) and astigmatism (cylindrical error). In order to prevent sight problems in kids, parents need to come into the picture and inculcate healthy practices to improve vision. Dr M. S. Sridhar, M.D. (AIIMS), senior phaco, LASIK surgeon and senior corneal consultant at Maxivision Eye Hospital says, Eye check-ups for children between 5 6 years of age followed by yearly visits to an ophthalmologist is necessary so as to lower the risk of vision problems.
Image Source: Getty Images
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