A Scoping Literature Review on Effects of Eye Exercises for Myopia in Children

Abstract

The scoping review on eye exercise for myopia in children was aimed to provide an evidence-informed overview to highlight the role of exercises for myopia in children. This helps in the treatment of myopia and to improve the visual health in easy and better way. More high quality research articles are needed to prove the effort of exercise on myopia in children.

Full text

Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy Journal / Volume 8 Number 1 / January - March 2015
27
Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy Journal
Volume 8 Number 1, January - March 2015
Review Article
© Red Flower Publication Pvt. Ltd.
A Scoping Literature Review on Effects of Eye Exercises
for Myopia in Children
Author Affilation: *,**Post Graduate student, ***Assistant
Professor, ****Profe ssor, and Princ ipal, Maha rishi
Markandeshwar Institute of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation,
Maharishi Ma rkande shwar University, Mul lana-13 3207.
Haryana, India.
Reprint Request: Vencita Priyanka Aranha, Post Graduate
student researcher, Maharishi Markandeshwar Institute of
Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation, Maharishi Markandeshwar
University, Mullana-133207. Ambala, Haryana, India.
E-mail: vencita.peds@mmumullana.org, vencitaa@gmail.com
© Red Flower Publication Pvt. Ltd.
Abstract
The scoping review on eye exercise for myopia in children was aimed to provide an evidence-informed
overview to highlight the role of exercises for myopia in children. This helps in the treatment of myopia
and to improve the visual health in easy and better way. More high quality research articles are needed
to prove the effort of exercise on myopia in children.
Keywords: Pediatric Myopia; Pediatric Visual Rehabilitation; Oculomotor Rehabilitation.
Rahul Pandey*, Vencita Priyanka Aranha**, Asir John Samuel ***, Senthil P. Kumar
Introduction
Myopia is the commonest type of refractive error
in eye where the light from infinity will focus in front
of retina rather than focusing on the retina leads to
blurring of image. Myopia is derived from Greek word
muópia which means “trying to see like a blot”, and
also called as shortsightedness. Shiny et al [1]
described the eye with myopia as “one for which the
punctum remotum is a short distance off, sometimes
only a little inches from the eye”, and also says
myopia is “one in which the images focus in front of
the retina while eye at rest”.
The preponderance of shortsightedness varies by
country and by indigenous assortment, reaching as
high as 70-90% in some Asian populations [2]. Near
epidemic levels of myopia of up to 80% have been
reported in countries such as Hong Kong, Taiwan,
Singapore and Japan [3-5]. In Europe and America,
its preponderance varies between 30-40%, while in
Africa 10-20% of the population is affected.
Shortsightedness affects 25% of the population in
United States. The prevalence of myopia in India is
45% [6-8]. Available treatment option for myopia are
optical correction, pharmaceutical treatment like
cycloplegic promoters, vision therapy,
orthokeratology, refractive surgeries like (radial
keratotomy, excimer laser photorefractive
keratectomy), osteopathy, yoga therapy and aerobic
exercise therapy [9]. These treatment choices have
many problems like post-operative complication,
cosmetic problem, eye infection, the daily use of
spectacles may limits their daily activities such play,
dance, and even other activities specially in children.
The simple eye exercise will be more beneficial for
the treatment of myopia in children
Exercise therapy for eye is not a new approach. In
fact, vision workout and treatment approach have
been around for years. The designs of these treatment
or eye exercises aids in conquer different visual
disorders including binocular function. Not all the
treatment methods have been proven effective by
exercises. In this study we explored the research
articles from the pubmed and Cochrane library for
eye exercises and myopia in children and all available
articles selected for review.
Exercises and Myopia
Samia [10] have done a randomized clinical trial
on myopia with 15 female aged between 12 to 15 years
in Saudi Arabia and the results of the study showed
that there is improvement in visual acuity in subjects
with myopia. These results suggest that clinicians
should consider the use of eye exercises as a way of
improving visual acuity for adolescents suffering
from myopia.

28
Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy Journal / Volume 8 Number 1 / January - March 2015
Pandey et. al. / A Scoping Literature Review on Effects of Eye Exercises for Myopia in Children
Rathod et al [11] performed research work on
myopia in thirty subjects, age ranging between 18-25
years. Subjects were randomly assigned in to two
group that is Group A (Experimental Group) and
Group B (Control group). Group A received Eye
focusing exercises 10 repetition 3 sets daily for
4 weeks with standard care and the control group
does not received any exercises except standard care
for myopia for 4 weeks. The results show that, the
eye exercises are effective in improving near point
convergence in myopia but the improvement of visual
acurity was not statistically significant
Gosewade et al [12] have conducted a study on
the effect of eye exercise techniques along with
kapalbharti pranayama on Visual Reaction Time
(VRT). 60 participants with an age group of 18–30
years were divided into two equal groups (study
group and control group) containing 30 subjects
(18 male and 12 female) each. VRT of all
participants were taken prior to the study. Eight
weeks of regular eye exercise techniques and
kapalbharti pranayama was trained for the study-
group subjects whereas the control-group subjects
were not practiced any eye exercises techniques.
After 8 weeks VRT was measured again. The result
shows there was significant decrease in the VRT
after intervention in study group and there were
not any changes noticed in VRT of control group.
They concluded that the simple eye exercises along
with pranayama helps in improvement of visual
reaction time.
Gopinathan et al [13] have performed a research
and they were aimed to evaluate the role of eye
exercises and Trataka Yoga Kriya on Ammetropia
and Presbyopia. 66 patients were divided under
two main groups with four sub groups of
refractive error like shortsightdness, hyperopia,
astigmatism, and presbyopia, respectively,
(Group A – 32 patients, Group B – 34 patients) by
random sampling method. Group A subjects were
asked to perform eye exercises daily once for
3 weeks. Group B subjects were instucted to
perform Trataka Yoga Kriya once at daily (either
in morning or in evening) for 3 weeks. The
prescribed eye exercises were Sunning, Eye wash,
Palming, Candle light reading, Shifting and
Swinging, Playing with ball, Vaporization and Cold
pad. The subjects were observed for 1 month in order
to see any adverse effects of the therapy. The study
suggests that there was one line rectification in
Snellen’s chart reading and concluded that a non-
medicinal, inexpensive, relaxation approaches can
rectify the quality of vision, by which it discursively
review the betterment of the disease status.
Discussion
The available treatment option for myopia have
many consequences like cosmetic problems, eye
strain, asthenopic symptoms, post LASIK infection,
postoperative infection, recurrence of refractive error
etc. to overcome from these consequences the eye
exercise can provide beneficial therapeutic effect for
the treatment or prevention of the development of
myopia without any consequences. Limitation of this
review is lack of systemic review and lack of clinical
trials.
Conclusion
In these literature reviews we found that how eye
exercises are effective in the treatment of myopia. But
there are only three cochrane and two pubmed
indexed researches are published till date. The
intension of this review is focused to emphasize the
research for the treatment of myopia with exercise in
future days. So that myopia can be treated in a better
and easy way.
Conflict of Interest
Non declared
References
1. Shiny G, Joseph BB. Study on the prevalence and
underlying factors of myopia among the students
of a medical college in Kerala. Int J Med Res
Health Sci 2014; 3:3 30-7.
2. Gwiazda J. Treatment options for myopia. Optom
Vis Sci 2009; 86: 624-8.
3. Ahmed I, Mian S, Mudasir S, Andrabi KI.
Prevalence of myopia in students of srinagar city
of kashmir, India. Int J Health Sci (Qassim) 2008;
2: 77-81.
4. Wong TY, Foster PJ, Hee J, Ng TP, Tielsch JM,
Chew SJ, Johnson GJ, Seah SK.Prevalence and
risk factors for refractive errors in adult Chinese
in Singapore. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 2000;
41: 2486-94.
5. Murthy GV, Gupta SK, Ellwein LB, Muñoz SR,
Pokharel GP, Sanga L, Bachani D.Refractive error
in children in an urban population in New Delhi.
Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 2002; 43: 623-31.

Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy Journal / Volume 8 Number 1 / January - March 2015
29
Pandey et. al. / A Scoping Literature Review on Effects of Eye Exercises for Myopia in Children
6. Chalasani S, Jampala VK and Nayak P, Myopia
among Medical Students-A Cross Sectional Study
in a South Indian Medical College, Al Ameen
Journal of Medical Sciences 2012; 5: 233-42.
7. Kathrotia RG, Dave AG, Dabhoiwala ST, Patel
ND, Rao PV and Oommen ER, Prevalence and
progression of refractive errors among medical
students, Indian Journal of Physiology and
Pharmacology 2012; 56: 284–87.
8. Sood RS, Sood A; Prevelance of Myopia among the
Medical Student in Western India vis-à-vis the
East Asian epidemic: IOSR-JDMS 2014; 13: 65-
67
9. Verhoeven VJ, Wong KT, Buitendijk GH, Hofman
A, Vingerling JR, Klaver CC.Visual consequences
of refractive errors in the general population.
Ophthalmology 2015; 122: 101-9.
10. Mohamed Samia AAR. Vision Therapy-Based
Program for Myopia Control in Adolescents.
Middle-East J Sci Res 2013; 13: 390-6.
11. Rathod VJ, Desai DP, Alagesan J. Effect of eye
exercise on myopia-Randomized controlled
study. J Pharm Biomed Sci 2011; 10: 1-4.
12. Gosewade NB, Shende VS, Kashalikar SJ. Effect
of Various Eye Exercise Techniques along with
Pranayama on Visual Reaction Time: A Case
Control Study. J Clin Diagn Res 2013; 7: 1870-3.
13. Gopinathan G, Dhiman KS, Manjusha R. A
clinical study to evaluate the efficacy of Trataka
Yoga Kriya and eye exercises (non-
pharmocological methods) in the management
of Timira (Ammetropia and Presbyopia). Ayu
2012; 33: 543-6.
Instructions to Authors
Submission to the journal must comply with the Guidelines for Authors.
Non-compliant submission will be returned to the author for correction.
To access the online submission system and for the most up-to-date version of the
Guide for Authors please visit:
http://www.rfppl.co.in
Technical problems or general questions on publishing with POTJ are supported by
Red Flower Publication Pvt. Ltd’s Author Support team (http://www.rfppl.co.in)
Alternatively, please contact the Journal’s Editorial Office for further assistance.
A Lal
Publication-in-Charge
Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy Journal
Red Flower Publication Pvt. Ltd.
48/41-42, DSIDC, Pocket-II
Mayur Vihar Phase-I
Delhi – 110 091
India
Phone: 91-11-22754205, 45796900, Fax: 91-11-22754205
E-mail: redflowerppl@gmail.com, redflowerppl@vsnl.net
Website: www.rfppl.co.in

30
Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy Journal / Volume 8 Number 1 / January - March 2015
STATEMENT ABOUT OWNERSHIP AND OTHER PARTICULARS
“Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy Journal” (See Rule 8)
1. Place of Publication : Delhi
2. Periodicity of Publication : Quarterly
3. Printer’s Name : Asharfi Lal
Nationality : Indian
Address : 3/258-259, Trilok Puri, Delhi-91
4. Publisher’s Name : Asharfi Lal
Nationality : Indian
Address : 3/258-259, Trilok Puri, Delhi-91
5. Editor’s Name : Asharfi Lal (Editor-in-Chief)
Nationality : Indian
Address : 3/258-259, Trilok Puri, Delhi-91
6. Name & Address of Individuals : Asharfi Lal
who own the newspaper and particulars of : 3/258-259, Trilok Puri, Delhi-91
shareholders holding more than one per cent
of the total capital
I Asharfi Lal, hereby declare that the particulars given above are true to the best of my
knowledge and belief.
Sd/-
(Asharfi Lal)