Poor quality lighting impacts children’s eyesight and school performance: Philips Lighting Study
New Delhi: With Indian children spending on an average twelve hours a day under poor quality lighting, concentrating in school or doing homework, Indian parents are becoming increasingly worried about their children’s eyesight. As per a survey conducted by Philips Lighting (Euronext Amsterdam ticker: LIGHT), the world leader in lighting, 61% of Indian parents agreed that studying under poor quality, flickering light can damage a child’s eyesight.
The study was conducted across twelve countries including India and revealed that nearly half of all Indian parents worry that their child will need glasses in the future. To address this alarming and growing urban emergency of child myopia, more than half (55%) of Indian parents surveyed were willing to purchase good quality lighting that can positively impact their child’s eyesight and performance at school, in addition to improving their diet. This is also supported by a report from the World Health Organisation (WHO), which has shown that excessive near work can increase the risk of myopia and that spending more time outdoors1 can help. It comes up a time when the World Health Organization is predicting that one in two people will be short sighted by 2050[1].
Ophthalmologists understand the gravity of the situation and are pulling out all stops to sensitise the general population to step up on their eye care quotient. “There is a continued need to educate the public about eye care. As part of our commitment to the community at large in raising awareness on this issue, the All India Ophthalmological Society has developed a number of proactive community oriented programs, guidelines and resources to enhance ophthalmic education amongst the public. Towards this goal, all our 20,000 odd members are working hard to preserve and restore vision for Indians” remarkedDr. K. S. Santhan Gopal MD(AIIMS) FRCS(Edin), FRCOphth(UK), Kamala Nethralaya, Bangalore and President, All India Ophthalmology Society.
“As Indian children are increasingly spending more time indoors under artificial lighting, concentrating on school work, it’s important that they do sounder good quality lighting that is comfortable for their eyes, to reduce any unnecessary strain,” saysSumit Joshi, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Philips Lighting India. “At Philips Lighting, we understand the importance of good quality lighting, particularly when it comes to eye comfort, which is why we test all our Philips LED’s to ensure they pass our high standards for the most comfortable lighting yet.”
Academic performance and children’s stress levels are also a source of concern for Indian parents, with parents looking for practical solutions that will have a positive impact on their child’s well-being and performance academically.
The study of over 9,000 adults across twelve countries – India, China, USA, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Indonesia, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Thailand and Turkey– becomes all the more relevant given the above dire situation.