THE INFLUENCE OF READING AND WRITING ON THE PREVALENCE OF MYOPIA.

PURPOSE In this study we decided to answer the question of whether spending more time on reading and writing leads to higher prevalence of myopia. MATERIAL AND METHODS A total of 70 people (140 eyes)--17 men and 53 women aged 18-29 years (mean 22.5 ± 2.8) were examined. A questionnaire concerning the amount of time spent each day on reading and writing, as well as ophthalmic examination involving: visual acuity, anterior segment and fundus examination, keratometry, autorefractometry and axial length of the eyeball measurement (using IOL Master) were carried out in all participants. The refractive errors were described as spherical equivalents (SE). Hyperopia was defined to be SE higher than +0.5 Dsph, and emmetropia to be higher than -0.5 and lower than +0.5 Dsph. Myopia was defined to be with a SE lower than -0.5 Dsph. High myopia was defined as SE lower than -8, medium myopia in the range between -8 and -4, and low myopia lower than -0.5 and higher than -4 Dsph. The obtained results were typed into an Excel spreadsheet and analyzed statistically using Statistica 10 software. P values of < 0.05 were considered statistically significant. RESULTS It was found that people with low myopia spent statistically more time on reading and writing than participants in the emmetropic group (5.8 ± 2.4 vs 4.1 ± 2.4 h/day, p = 0.003). A relationship between reading and writing and medium and high myopia and hyperopia was not observed (p > 0.05). CONCLUSION Near visual work leads to higher prevalence of low myopia.