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range of nursery-lighting conditions is remarkably uniform. The association we find between parental myopia and nursery night-time lighting suggests that Quinn et al.s study should have controlled for parental myopia.
Another possible difference is that Quinn et al.s sample is not representative of juvenile myopes. It was drawn from a tertiary referral, paediatric ophthalmology outpatient clinic, and the sample had a median age of eight (young for a sample of myopes) with a very high proportion of myopia (30%). Our sample had fewer myopes and fewer hyperopes, and the children were older. Also, the proportion of parents reporting that their infants slept under full lighting is different in our study: more than 15% of their clinic-based sample had full nursery lighting, whereas only3.7% of our representative, school-based sample had full room lighting at night.
Our results indicate that myopia is unlikely to develop in children as a result of exposure to night-time lighting as infants. Karla Zadnik*, Lisa A. Jones*,Brett C. Irvin*, Robert N. Kleinstein,Ruth E. Manny, Julie A. Shin,Donald O. Mutti*, for the CLEEREStudy Group*College of Optometry, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210-1240, USASchool of Optometry, University of Alabama, Birmingham, Alabama 35294-0010, USACollege of Optometry, University of Houston, Houston, Texas 77204-6052, USASouthern California College of Optometry, Fullerton, California 92831, USAe-mail: [email protected]
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Quinn et al. report a strong association between myopia in children and their exposure to night-time lighting during their first two years1. We have been unable to confirm this surprising result,...