Low color temperature artificial lighting can slow myopia development: Long-term study using juvenile monkeys

The incidence of myopia has increased rapidly in recent decades, suggesting that environmental factors, such as light, may be an important cause. Correlated color temperature (CCT) is a commonly used index to quantify the spectral composition of light. Here, we used 32 juvenile monkeys (16 females and 16 males) and selected four kinds of light with typical but different CCTs to study the relationship between CCT and ocular axial elongation. After 365 days of observation, ocular axial elongation under low-CCT light was smaller than that under high-CCT light and this effect was robust and stable over the entire observation period. As excessive axial elongation is the main cause of juvenile myopia, these results provide a new approach for the prevention of juvenile myopia.