The effect of near work on the anterior eye and associations with myopia: a narrative review.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Narrative review synthesizing mechanistic hypotheses without primary empirical data or systematic search methodology
PubMed 40037611 · doi:10.1080/08164622.2025.2468900
What was done
Narrative review synthesizing published literature on how near work activities (involving accommodation, convergence, and pupil constriction) alter the structural and optical properties of the anterior segment of the eye, and how these changes may relate mechanistically to axial elongation and myopia development.
What was found
The abstract reports no numerical data or effect sizes. It describes that near work induces mechanical changes, including ciliary body contraction, medial rectus contraction, lateral rectus relaxation, altered eyelid-cornea interaction, pupil size changes, and crystalline lens reshaping/repositioning. These lead to optical variations (altered spherical refractive power, astigmatism, accommodative convergence, higher-order aberrations, and retinal image quality degradation), with differences observed between myopes and non-myopes.
Why it matters
Synthesizes the biomechanical and optical pathways through which near work could physically drive axial elongation, framing mechanistic hypotheses for environmental myopia.
Limits
Narrative review design with no systematic search methodology, risk-of-bias assessment, or quantitative synthesis. The abstract provides no primary clinical data, sample counts, or statistical results, relying on hypothesized mechanistic links.
Cited by
- supports Prolonged close-distance viewing can cause myopia by altering the shape of the eyeball and lens.