ReviewInvestigative ophthalmology & visual science2025
IMI: The Role of Light in Refractive Development and Myopia: Evidence from Animal and Human Studies.
Review in Investigative ophthalmology & visual science, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Comparative effectiveness of outdoor and exercise interventions for myopia control in children and adolescents: a systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials.Frontiers in public health · 2026Pooled it
- Acute Ocular Effects of Violet and Red Light Exposure in Young Adults.Ophthalmic & physiological optics : the journal of the British College of Ophthalmic Opticians (Optometrists) · 2026Article
- Annual Solar Cycles: Investigating Seasonal Variations in Southern Norway and Their Potential Role in Human Eye Growth.Investigative ophthalmology & visual science · 2026Article
- Mesopic Illumination in Natural Environments: Implications for Myopia Research.Ophthalmic & physiological optics : the journal of the British College of Ophthalmic Opticians (Optometrists) · 2026Article
- Beyond Screen Time: A Measurement Framework for Behavioral Exposures in Childhood Myopia.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Potential Inhibitory Effect of LED-Sourced Red Light Therapy on Ocular Growth in Normal and Myopic Chicks.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Neuro-ophthalmic review on pediatric myopia: Advancing from refraction to a brain-centric model of axial growth.World journal of clinical pediatrics · 2026Review
- Evaluating the Effect on Emmetropization of the Timing and Spectrum of Breaks From a Myopiagenic Environment.Investigative ophthalmology & visual science · 2026Article
- Light intensity and light/dark cycles regulate refractive development and myopia in mice through circadian rhythm-related genes.Graefe's archive for clinical and experimental ophthalmology = Albrecht von Graefes Archiv fur klinische und experimentelle Ophthalmologie · 2026Article
- Article
- Light-at-night exposure drives myopia via melanopsin signalling.Science China. Life sciences · 2026Article
- Myopia Prevalence Among 6-17 Years Students in Rural Areas of Seven Provinces of China.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- S-Cone Retinal Pathway Dysfunction in Myopia.Investigative ophthalmology & visual science · 2026Article
- Review
- Role of light in eye growth and light as a therapy for myopia control.Frontiers in ophthalmology · 2026Review
- Display color gamut as a spectral risk factor for myopia: a unifying hypothesis linking chromatic emmetropization, cone circuitry dysfunction, and the spectral deficiency of digital screens.Frontiers in ophthalmology · 2026Article
- Effects of a recess-based ocular muscle regulation training program on visual function in adolescents: a school-based controlled study.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Hyperopic reserve insufficiency and myopic pre-disposition in pre-school children aged 3-6 years: a large-scale cross-sectional survey.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
- IMI-2025 Digest.Investigative ophthalmology & visual science · 2025Article
- IMI-Interventions for Controlling Myopia Onset and Progression 2025.Investigative ophthalmology & visual science · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
22 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Spending time outdoors is consistently associated with delayed myopia onset in children and has been incorporated into prevention programs. While the underlying mechanisms remain under investigation, substantial evidence supports sunlight exposure as a key contributing factor. This review evaluates the evidence supporting this association. Animal studies demonstrate that light characteristics-such as intensity, chromaticity, and photoperiod-can influence refractive development, often postulated to function through modulation of the dopaminergic system. However, translating these findings to humans is challenging due to limited data. Evidence remains insufficient regarding how specific light properties-including intensity thresholds, exposure durations, spectral composition, and temporal patterns-affect human myopia. Consequently, although clinical recommendations for outdoor time (e.g., 2 hours daily) are well supported by epidemiological studies and widely endorsed, current literature does not yet support evidence-based guidelines concerning specific characteristics of light exposure. Addressing this gap requires further randomized controlled trials using standardized wearable technologies to better quantify children's visual environments and identify light-related cues relevant to myopia development. Interest in light-based therapies is growing, but most interventions remain in early stages of development/testing. Due to limited efficacy data or unresolved safety concerns, no clinical recommendations can currently be made. Interpreting light-related research-especially from across animal models-requires caution. Species-specific differences in ocular transmittance and opsin distribution/tuning complicate the translation of chromatically related findings between species and to humans. Moreover, the term "white light" can be misleading, as artificial sources vary spectrally from each other and from sunlight, resulting in varied patterns of opsin activation. Studies should therefore attempt to report not only light intensity, but also the radiant power emitted at each wavelength to enable meaningful comparisons.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.