Page 22 - The Indian Optician Digital Edition Jan-Feb 2020

STUDY ON ADULTS WITH VISION AND INSTAGRAM USERS
HEARING IMPAIRMENTS TEND TO FOCUS ON
CENTRE OF LEFT EYE
A new study by Singapore this age group) could also expect to IN SELFIES
researchers published
spend three more years of their life
in the Journal of the American with limitations on physical function elfie takers tend to centre
Geriatric Society, has noted that life than someone without a visual or S the images to align
expectancy and quality of life are hearing impairment. horizontally with their left eye – this
affected in older adults living with curious finding came to light when
vision and hearing loss. “Timely and appropriate researchers analysed over 4,000
management of vision and hearing
Explaining further one of the impairment, especially when Instagram selfies in New York, Sao
researchers said that a visually and coexisting, among older adults has Paulo, Moscow, Berlin, and Bangkok.
hearing impaired 60-year-old had a the potential to reduce the years Researchers from the University
life expectancy that was on average of life they live with limitation in of London, the University of Parma
4.2 years shorter than a 60-year-old physical function and in activities and the University of Liverpool
without either impairment. contributed to the work, which
of daily living,” summed up the
He also said that an individual research team. was subsequently published in the
with both senses impaired (within PLOS One.
Professor Christopher Tyler,
STUDY ON SMOKING AND CHOROIDAL from the University of London, said,
THINNING IN CHILDREN “This alignment is because our eyes
provide a wealth of information
Of the 1400 children, 941 had no
A ccording to a study published exposure to secondhand smoking about our gaze direction and what
in JAMA Ophthalmology,
we are paying attention to, which
young children are susceptible but 459 had some exposure to may, in turn, be used to share
to choroidal thinning if they are secondhand smoking. important information with the viewer
exposed to secondhand smoking at When the study team analysed about our mood and what we are
a tender age. thinking about.”
the results they found that smoking
Nan Yuan, from The Chinese exposure was linked to a thinner Tyler also said that the
University of Hong Kong, and choroid by 8.3 micrometres (μm) in research replicated an earlier finding
colleagues enlisted children aged 6 the central subfield, 7.2μm in the that painters tend to centre one
to 8 years from the population-based inner inferior, 6.4μm in the outer eye in portraits. “The tendency to
Hong Kong Children Eye Study to inferior, 6.4μm in the inner temporal, centre a feature of particular interest
examine the correlation between and 7.3μm in the outer temporal. in the frame presumably derives
choroidal thickness and exposure They also note that an increased from the fact that we humans have a
to secondhand smoke. The Data number of family members who single focal region of high resolution
in the centre of our retinas, the
included around 1,400 children. smoked and greater tally of daily fovea, providing a natural point of
As part of the study, the parents/ cigarettes were both associated with attraction for this largely unsuspected
legal guardians of the children were a higher level of choroidal thinning tendency in composing the portrait,”
questioned to find out about their in the study participants. he explained.
smoking habits. They were asked “These findings add to the Interestingly, this centering
if they or any other member of the potential harmful effect of tendency varied less among selfie
family smoked at home, how long secondhand smoking on children’s subjects than expected if the
they smoked for and how many ocular health and development,” the phenomenon happened by chance,
cigarettes they had each day. authors concluded. and was seen consistently across all
the cities sampled in the study.

| JAN-FEB 2020 | 18 OPTOMETRY NEWS

January-February 2020 SK News IDML.indd 8 02/15/2020 20:26