A new study from Orbis finds that children with myopia (nearsightedness) experienced significantly higher levels of depression and anxiety than their peers without vision impairment. In addition, findings indicated that surgery to correct strabismus (misalignment of the eyes) significantly improved symptoms of depression and anxiety in children.
The study, which was published in the peer-reviewed journal Ophthalmology, builds our understanding of the link between vision impairment, strabismus and children’s mental health. While there is an existing large body of work focused on the impact of vision impairment on depression and anxiety in adults, studies investigating mental health in children with vision impairment are few and have not previously been reviewed in this comprehensive way.