By Kathryn Doyle NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - For nearsighted
children in Denmark, vision deteriorated faster when days were
shortest and more slowly during the summer months, according to
a new study looking into whether daylight may slow kids' vision
loss. "Most likely it is the light exposure that causes the
reduced myopia progression during periods with longer days,"
said lead author Dr. Dongmei Cui, an ophthalmologist at Sun Yat-
sen University in Guangzhou, China. Cui and his colleagues
analyzed data from a clinical trial that included more than 200
children aged 8 to 14 years old with myopia, or nearsightedness,
in Denmark - where day length ranges from seven hours in winter
to almost 18 hours in summer. Researchers looked at changes both
in the children's ability to see and in the shape of their eyes.
Over the six months with the least daylight, nearsightedness
progressed by 0.32 diopters (a measurement of the optical power
of a lens and the increment used in eyeglasses prescriptions).
In comparison, ch