{"id":1210,"date":"2022-10-05T14:20:22","date_gmt":"2022-10-05T06:20:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/?p=1210"},"modified":"2022-10-05T14:20:22","modified_gmt":"2022-10-05T06:20:22","slug":"healthy-lives-healthy-eyes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/2022\/10\/05\/healthy-lives-healthy-eyes\/","title":{"rendered":"Healthy lives, healthy eyes"},"content":{"rendered":"

In many parts of the world, providing an ordinary pair of glasses can be life-changing. Congdon has been working in China since the early 1980s, together with ORBIS International, a charity that has provided low-cost glasses to 2.5 million children in China and India. He undertook the first trial to find out whether glasses would improve educational outcomes. His study<\/a> of 20,000 children in Guangdong, China found that the impact of giving a pair of glasses outstripped the impact of parental education or family income.<\/p>\n

“It means that a simple, low-cost intervention can reverse a lot of the disadvantages that a kid might come into the world having vis-a-vis their parent’s education or a low family income. We found this exciting,” adds Congdon.<\/p>\n

The most effective, evidence-based prevention strategy is also surprisingly low-tech, and applies to all countries regardless of their wealth or resources: more time outdoors.<\/p>\n

Researchers are still investigating exactly why being outdoors, and being in natural light, helps prevent myopia \u2013 but for now, their perhaps most important conclusion is that it does. The challenge is to ensure that children make use of this natural boost.<\/p>\n

In Singapore, outdoors time at preschools<\/a> was doubled to one hour as part of the broader national myopia-fighting strategy. Exams for the youngest students have been scrapped, to reduce the time spent doing homework.<\/p>\n

“We want to increase outdoor time for older students, but the curriculum is quite packed,” says Chia. “We’re a small island, so some schools don’t have the room for the kids to go out and they’re not close to a park or anything.” While many uncertainties remain about myopia, she is encouraged by the progress made during decades of research: “Three years ago, we did not know how important sunlight is.”<\/p>\n

Ultimately, a child’s eyesight is part of their general wellbeing, she says: “We don’t just want the focus to be on the eyes: it’s about the whole body and good mental health. We want our kids to lead healthy lives.”<\/p>\n

If you like to find out more about how to manage this problem, you may visit www.mataclinic.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In many parts of the world, providing an ordinary pair of glasses can be life-changing. Congdon has been working in China since the early 1980s, together with ORBIS International, a charity that has provided low-cost glasses to 2.5 million children in China and India. He undertook the first trial to find out whether glasses would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[126,116,335,336,130,219,281,265,191,13,137,200,7],"yoast_head":"\nHealthy lives, healthy eyes - Mata Clinic & Optometrist Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"His study of 20,000 children in Guangdong, China found that the impact of giving a pair of glasses outstripped the impact of parental education or family income.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/2022\/10\/05\/healthy-lives-healthy-eyes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Healthy lives, healthy eyes - Mata Clinic & Optometrist Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"His study of 20,000 children in Guangdong, China found that the impact of giving a pair of glasses outstripped the impact of parental education or family income.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/2022\/10\/05\/healthy-lives-healthy-eyes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mata Clinic & Optometrist Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/facebook.com\/mataclinic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-10-05T06:20:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/4BC64CDA-BE2E-4538-A227-343D8ADBAC7C.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"848\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"mataclinic\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@mataclinic\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"mataclinic\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/2022\/10\/05\/healthy-lives-healthy-eyes\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/2022\/10\/05\/healthy-lives-healthy-eyes\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"mataclinic\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/c0e59080470650305d6b0d9ffd9eb406\"},\"headline\":\"Healthy lives, healthy eyes\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-10-05T06:20:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-10-05T06:20:22+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/2022\/10\/05\/healthy-lives-healthy-eyes\/\"},\"wordCount\":354,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/2022\/10\/05\/healthy-lives-healthy-eyes\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/4BC64CDA-BE2E-4538-A227-343D8ADBAC7C.webp\",\"keywords\":[\"#eyeglasses\",\"#eyeoftheworld\",\"#misight1day #dailydisposable #coopervision #myopiacontrol\",\"#myopiacontrol #myopiamanagement\",\"#myopiainchildren\",\"digital eye strain\",\"eye consultation\",\"eye exam\",\"eye specialist\",\"eye strain\",\"optician\",\"shortsighted\",\"shortsightedness\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Mata Clinic Blog\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/2022\/10\/05\/healthy-lives-healthy-eyes\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/2022\/10\/05\/healthy-lives-healthy-eyes\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/2022\/10\/05\/healthy-lives-healthy-eyes\/\",\"name\":\"Healthy lives, healthy eyes - Mata Clinic & Optometrist Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/2022\/10\/05\/healthy-lives-healthy-eyes\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/2022\/10\/05\/healthy-lives-healthy-eyes\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/4BC64CDA-BE2E-4538-A227-343D8ADBAC7C.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-10-05T06:20:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-10-05T06:20:22+00:00\",\"description\":\"His study of 20,000 children in Guangdong, China found that the impact of giving a pair of glasses outstripped the impact of parental education or family income.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/2022\/10\/05\/healthy-lives-healthy-eyes\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/2022\/10\/05\/healthy-lives-healthy-eyes\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/2022\/10\/05\/healthy-lives-healthy-eyes\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/4BC64CDA-BE2E-4538-A227-343D8ADBAC7C.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/4BC64CDA-BE2E-4538-A227-343D8ADBAC7C.webp\",\"width\":848,\"height\":480},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/2022\/10\/05\/healthy-lives-healthy-eyes\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Healthy lives, healthy eyes\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Mata Clinic & Optometrist Blog\",\"description\":\"Everything you need to know about eyes\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Mata Clinic & Optometrist\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/mata-logo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/mata-logo.jpg\",\"width\":960,\"height\":960,\"caption\":\"Mata Clinic & Optometrist\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/facebook.com\/mataclinic\",\"http:\/\/instagram.com\/mataclinic\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/c0e59080470650305d6b0d9ffd9eb406\",\"name\":\"mataclinic\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ed0b8835447add243ccedc9365aad3c3?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ed0b8835447add243ccedc9365aad3c3?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"mataclinic\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.mataclinic.com\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/mataclinic\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/author\/mataclinic\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Healthy lives, healthy eyes - Mata Clinic & Optometrist Blog","description":"His study of 20,000 children in Guangdong, China found that the impact of giving a pair of glasses outstripped the impact of parental education or family income.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/2022\/10\/05\/healthy-lives-healthy-eyes\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Healthy lives, healthy eyes - Mata Clinic & Optometrist Blog","og_description":"His study of 20,000 children in Guangdong, China found that the impact of giving a pair of glasses outstripped the impact of parental education or family income.","og_url":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/2022\/10\/05\/healthy-lives-healthy-eyes\/","og_site_name":"Mata Clinic & Optometrist Blog","article_publisher":"http:\/\/facebook.com\/mataclinic","article_published_time":"2022-10-05T06:20:22+00:00","og_image":[{"width":848,"height":480,"url":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/4BC64CDA-BE2E-4538-A227-343D8ADBAC7C.webp","type":"image\/webp"}],"author":"mataclinic","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@mataclinic","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"mataclinic","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/2022\/10\/05\/healthy-lives-healthy-eyes\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/2022\/10\/05\/healthy-lives-healthy-eyes\/"},"author":{"name":"mataclinic","@id":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/c0e59080470650305d6b0d9ffd9eb406"},"headline":"Healthy lives, healthy eyes","datePublished":"2022-10-05T06:20:22+00:00","dateModified":"2022-10-05T06:20:22+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/2022\/10\/05\/healthy-lives-healthy-eyes\/"},"wordCount":354,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/2022\/10\/05\/healthy-lives-healthy-eyes\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/4BC64CDA-BE2E-4538-A227-343D8ADBAC7C.webp","keywords":["#eyeglasses","#eyeoftheworld","#misight1day #dailydisposable #coopervision #myopiacontrol","#myopiacontrol #myopiamanagement","#myopiainchildren","digital eye strain","eye consultation","eye exam","eye specialist","eye strain","optician","shortsighted","shortsightedness"],"articleSection":["Mata Clinic Blog"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/2022\/10\/05\/healthy-lives-healthy-eyes\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/2022\/10\/05\/healthy-lives-healthy-eyes\/","url":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/2022\/10\/05\/healthy-lives-healthy-eyes\/","name":"Healthy lives, healthy eyes - Mata Clinic & Optometrist Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/2022\/10\/05\/healthy-lives-healthy-eyes\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/2022\/10\/05\/healthy-lives-healthy-eyes\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/4BC64CDA-BE2E-4538-A227-343D8ADBAC7C.webp","datePublished":"2022-10-05T06:20:22+00:00","dateModified":"2022-10-05T06:20:22+00:00","description":"His study of 20,000 children in Guangdong, China found that the impact of giving a pair of glasses outstripped the impact of parental education or family income.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/2022\/10\/05\/healthy-lives-healthy-eyes\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/2022\/10\/05\/healthy-lives-healthy-eyes\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/2022\/10\/05\/healthy-lives-healthy-eyes\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/4BC64CDA-BE2E-4538-A227-343D8ADBAC7C.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/4BC64CDA-BE2E-4538-A227-343D8ADBAC7C.webp","width":848,"height":480},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/2022\/10\/05\/healthy-lives-healthy-eyes\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Healthy lives, healthy eyes"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/","name":"Mata Clinic & Optometrist Blog","description":"Everything you need to know about eyes","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Mata Clinic & Optometrist","url":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/mata-logo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/mata-logo.jpg","width":960,"height":960,"caption":"Mata Clinic & Optometrist"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/facebook.com\/mataclinic","http:\/\/instagram.com\/mataclinic"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/c0e59080470650305d6b0d9ffd9eb406","name":"mataclinic","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ed0b8835447add243ccedc9365aad3c3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ed0b8835447add243ccedc9365aad3c3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"mataclinic"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.mataclinic.com","https:\/\/x.com\/mataclinic"],"url":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/author\/mataclinic\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1210"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1210"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1212,"href":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1210\/revisions\/1212"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mataasia.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}