RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Outdoor activity and myopia in Singapore teenage children JF British Journal of Ophthalmology JO Br J Ophthalmol FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd. SP 997 OP 1000 DO 10.1136/bjo.2008.150979 VO 93 IS 8 A1 M Dirani A1 L Tong A1 G Gazzard A1 X Zhang A1 A Chia A1 T L Young A1 K A Rose A1 P Mitchell A1 S-M Saw YR 2009 UL http://bjo.bmj.com/content/93/8/997.abstract AB Aim: To investigate the relationship of outdoor activities and myopia in Singapore teenage children.Methods: Teenage children (1249 participants), examined in the Singapore Cohort study Of Risk factors for Myopia (SCORM), during 2006 were included in analyses. Participants completed questionnaires that quantified total outdoor activity, and underwent an eye examination.Results: The mean total time spent on outdoor activity was 3.24 h/day. The total outdoor activity (h/day) was significantly associated with myopia, odds ratio 0.90 (95% CI 0.84 to 0.96) (p = 0.004), after adjusting for age, gender, ethnicity, school type, books read per week, height, parental myopia, parental education and intelligence quotient. In addition, the total time spent outdoors was associated with significantly less myopic refraction (regression coefficient = 0.17; CI 0.10 to 0.25, p<0.001) and shorter axial length (regression coefficient −0.06 (CI −0.1 to −0.03, p<0.001). Total sports was also significantly negatively associated with myopia (p = 0.008) but not indoor sports (p = 0.16).Conclusions: Participants who spent more time outdoors were less likely to be myopic. Thus, outdoor activity may protect against development of myopia in children, supporting recent Australian data. As near work did not predict outdoor activity, this can be viewed as an independent factor and not merely the reciprocal of near work.