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Video games may be safer than we once thought. According to a recent controlled study, older children who played video games for at least one hour per day showed vision improvements in the amblyopic eye.
Amblyopia is a vision deficiency in an eye that is characteristically otherwise healthy. The message sent to the brain is often blurred and the brain disregards the image all together. Young children, under the age of 5, can often be treated for amblyopia by using patch therapy. Many doctors believe that older children, after age 10 cannot undergo successful treatment.
A recent study was performed by Somen Ghosh, M.D., an Ophthalmic Surgeon from Kolkata, Bengal, India. The study consisted of 100 children between 10 and 18 years old with amblyopia. Ghosh patched the good eye and had the children play at least one hour of video games consisting of shooting guns or racing cars. He found a 64% visual improvement in the group of children that played video games with the lazy eye only.
Kids, big and small, love to play video games and this can be good news if the data is correct. Before you dedicate more time to gaming, remember that the research is still in its early stages.
Disclosure: Information retrieved from Ocular Surgery News, November 2011
