Children’s Headaches are Rarely Linked to Vision Problems
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Parents are often mystified by the cause of their children's headaches. A common assumption is that headaches might be related to poor vision, indicating a need for eyeglasses. But, a recent study says otherwise. New research presented at the American Academy of Ophthalmology's 2012 Annual Meeting in Chicago found that even when children’s headaches strike during visual tasks like homework, vision or eye problems are rarely the cause of kids’ headaches.
The study was conducted by pediatric ophthalmologists at Albany Medical Center in New York State to help provide more reliable answers for parents, family doctors and pediatricians who face this common health question. The researchers reviewed medical records of children under age 18 who were seen at the clinic for frequent headaches between 2002-2011. All of the children received complete eye exams by the clinic’s ophthalmologists.
The findings showed that there was no significant correlation between children’s frequent headaches and a need for vision correction. Follow up reports from parents showed that headaches improved three-quarters of the children, and headaches were equally likely to improve regardless of whether they received a new prescription for vision correction.
“We hope our study will help reassure parents that in most cases their children’s headaches are not related to vision or eye problems, and that most headaches will clear up in time,” said Zachary Roth, M.D., an ophthalmologist who led the research team.
For more information about children’s vision or other eye health issues, visit www.geteyesmart.org.
DAVID R. MCPHILLIPS
3:24 pm on Monday, November 19, 2012
The data and conclusions of research presented at medical meetings should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.
It’s also worth noting that about 30 percent of the kids in this study were found to have eye conditions (such as misaligned eyes or “lazy eye”) for which glasses were not appropriate treatment, but treatments with other visual therapies potentially could be, and a few had rare but serious health conditions affecting their vision that were also detected during the eye exam. The study’s design didn’t allow for determining whether those conditions caused headaches.
All children should have regular comprehensive vision exams, first at age 1 to check for signs of lazy eye or crossed eyes, then at age 3 to check the ability of the two eyes to work together as a team, and then at age 5 to determine the readiness of vision skills for school.
Good vision is more than just 20/20 sight. Efficient vision requires a number of critical visual skills. Some of these skills are eye teaming, clear and sustained near vision, tracking, focusing and accurate eye-hand coordination. Many of these skills were not tested as part of the protocol in this small study, so it would therefore be difficult to conclude, for example, a child having headaches during near tasks did not in fact still have a "vision" problem.
Dr. David R. McPhillips