Quote:
Originally Posted by L.J. Sellers
two neuroscientists recently advised books should be read outdoors in order to protect against nearsightedness
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Short-sightedness is caused by having corneas with a focal length too short for your eyeballs (or, alternatively, having eyes which are too big for your corneas). The
article references two studies which examined an extremely limited number of factors and happened to find a correlation with outdoor activity. The
Sydney-Singapore study did at least admit that there was a notable imbalance between the groups: Singapore children receive three years of structured pre-school training in reading that those in Sydney don't (the children in the study were around 7). As confounding factors go, that's a pretty big one.
Getting your kids to engage in more outdoor activities (including reading outside) is a good idea for many reasons. But I'm going to stay sceptical of the idea that it prevents short-sightedness without a lot more evidence.
I spent a lot of time outdoors as a young kid, and I'm blind without my glasses
