Long Island Eye Doctor Tackles COVID-Related Eye Epidemic In Kids

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Across the nation and Long Island, the pandemic has forced children to be indoors at home staring at screens due to virtual learning. It is back to school, 2020 style, and according to a leading Long Island eye doctor, children’s vision is far from 20/20. Eye doctors are already seeing the impact on children’s vision, with implications for their long-term eye health that parents may not fully understand.

It’s been over a year since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and screen time among kids has increased dramatically. Kids were forced to trade in-classroom instruction and outdoor playtime for Google Classrooms and video games with their friends. What many parents don’t realize is the impact this has on their children’s vision and eye health due to myopia. Myopia is when a child’s eye grows too long, causing blurry distance vision. “We think that this is going to be a doozy of a year for myopia with the pandemic and all the increased screen time that kids are getting,” says Allison Babiuch, Pediatric Ophthalmologist of the Cleveland Clinic.

A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) with over 120,000+ children in China found that instances of myopia increased up to three times in children aged 6 to 8 in 2020 compared to the previous five years. While eye doctors can prescribe glasses or contact lenses for kids with myopia, they are only a temporary "fix" and do not treat the underlying condition so a child’s vision usually continues to deteriorate.

In response to this fast-growing issue our children face, Diamond Vision, located in Rockville Centre, Long Island, partnered with Treehouse EyesⓇ, the leader in myopia management and treatment, to launch a unique treatment center to specifically treat myopia in children.

"The number of myopia cases in our young patients has been growing at an alarming rate for years due to more screen time and less time playing outdoors," said Dr. Shane Galan, who leads the practice at Diamond Vision. "Now we’re just starting to see the added effects of the pandemic. In addition to myopia causing blurry distance vision, it puts a child at much greater risk for serious eye diseases in their lifetime like glaucoma and retinal disease. Fortunately, we can now treat myopia in children to slow or in many cases stop their vision from getting worse. So it is really critical for parents to bring their child in for a comprehensive eye exam and see if they are a candidate for myopia treatment. Parents don’t have to watch every year as their child’s vision continually gets worse, we can now take action to help these kids."

For more information and to schedule an appointment, visit www.drshanegalan.com.

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