Outdoor Workers Research Articles

Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in the hypertensive south Indian population

Aim. The leading cause of early cardiovascular death worldwide is systemic hypertension (HTN). It is accountable for 57% of stroke and 24% of coronary heart disease deaths in India. Vitamin D indirectly regulates blood pressure through regulating the RAAS across clinical, pathophysiological, and molecular domains. This study examines Vitamin D deficiency in South Indian hypertensives. Materials and Methods. In this cross-sectional observational study, 500 routine health checkup patients at our clinic were assessed and enrolled. Demographics, symptoms, and lifestyle were collected using a standard questionnaire. Patients with chronic and newly diagnosed hypertension were included in the study. Blood was drawn to test Vitamin D (25-OH) levels. The data was evaluated to compare hypertensives who were already on medication and those who were newly diagnosed. Results. The population showed hypovitaminosis D, with an average Vitamin D level of 20.2 ± 10.3 ng/mL. A considerable number of newly diagnosed hypertensives had Vitamin D deficiency, with an average value of 17.7 ± 8.7 ng/mL. The observed value was significantly lower than the chronic hypertensive group (17.7 ± 8.7 ng/mL vs. 21.4 ±10.9, p <0.001). LDL, HDL, cholesterol, creatinine, and HbA1C levels were not signi­ficantly different across groups. Vitamin D levels were similar for outdoor and indoor workers (p = 0.727). Conclusion. Our study demonstrates there is a high prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency in the hypertensive South Indian population. There were substantially lower levels of Vitamin D identified in those who were newly diagnosed hypertensives compared to chronic hypertensives on treatment.

Workplace tentativity: biophysical environmental impacts on outdoor work

ABSTRACT Drawing from data gathered for two ethnographic case studies within the U.S. Forest Service, we develop the concept of workplace tentativity to describe the ways that the biophysical environment influences organizational workplace routines. We find that outdoor labor, routines, and plans adjust to biophysical change and uncertainty, and we examine the resulting organizational and micro-interactional dynamics when such instances occur. Under conditions of workplace tentativity, employees frame workplace activities as tentative and subject to change with limited notice, impacting daily work plans, organizationally planned activities, the utilization of materials, and preparation for and response to accidents and injuries. Attention to the impact of the biophysical environment on workplace structures, patterns, practices, and norms is essential in an era of climate crisis.

The impact of air pollution on employment location choice: Evidence from China's migrant population

Air pollution and labor mobility are two important social phenomena associated with China's pursuit of high-quality development. First, this paper matches China's urban characteristics data with China Migrants Dynamic Survey in 2017. Then, the conditional logit model is used to empirically investigate the effects and heterogeneity of air pollution on employment location choice. Finally, combined with the concept of risk perception in psychology, this paper explores the underlying mechanisms. The main results are as follows: (1) Air pollution has a significant negative effect on employment location choice of labor force. Specifically, a 1 μg/m3 increase in PM2.5 concentration in a city can result in a significant decrease of 0.917 percentage points in the probability that the labor force will choose to work in that city. (2) There are heterogeneous characteristics of the negative impact of air pollution on employment location choice. Those with higher education level, outdoor work, relatively higher individual income, and 1–2 minor children are more sensitive to air pollution when choosing employment sites. (3) The mechanism analysis shows that perceived air pollution is an important channel influencing labor's employment location choice, and the stronger the stimulus of air pollution, the greater the negative impact of perceived air pollution on labor force.

Protecting Outdoor Workers From Climate Change Impacts Through Interdisciplinary Collaboration.

Protecting Outdoor Workers From Climate Change Impacts Through Interdisciplinary Collaboration.

Climate change and typeI allergies at the workplace

The consequences of climate change, the increasing frequency, duration and intensity of extreme events such as excessive drought, heat waves, large-scale forest fires, heavy rainfall and associated flooding also affect workers' conditions in the workplace in many ways. Allergic diseases of the respiratory tract and skin due to workplace exposure can also arise or be influenced by direct and indirect consequences of climate change. This affects outdoor workers not only through increased exposure to pollen allergens, but also through climate-related increases in typical workplace allergens. As an indirect effect of climate change, manufacturing processes and exposure at workplaces are changing, which can also cause new sensitization and allergies. Lifestyle changes, which are primarily intended to contribute to climate protection and sustainability, can also lead to new or changed products and thus to changed manufacturing processes and exposures in the workplace, so this should also be considered an indirect effect of climate change on the health of workers. The emergence of new occupational sources of sensitization due to new or changed allergen exposures must be considered in the context of occupational health and safety and requires proactive measures to protect workers.

Assessment of Respiratory Morbidities among Shopkeepers and Vendors in a Semi-Urban Area

Context: Rapid urbanization has increased risk factors for respiratory morbidities, leaving the general population vulnerable. Potentially damaging agents are numerous, which result in damage to defence mechanisms, in turn causing respiratory morbidities. Shopkeepers and vendors in the semi-urban area, who mostly work outdoors at ground level, are continuously exposed to unhealthy environments and practices, and the majority are unaware of the situation. Aim: Our study will help identify the prevalence of respiratory morbidities and their association with risk factors. Thus, appropriate measures could be taken to impede respiratory morbidities. Settings and Design: Cross-sectional study in a semi-urban area. Methods: done among 260 subjects working for more than a year, while ones already on medication for respiratory illnesses were excluded. Statistical Analysis Used: Excel was used for data tabulation and Chi-square tests for significance, with the level of significance at α = 0.05. Results: A high prevalence of respiratory morbidities, with 64.62% of the study population showing one or more respiratory morbidities, was noted. Cough (23.85%), followed by breathlessness (22.31%), and were highly prevalent. The study revealed significant relationships between Peak Expiratory Flow Rate (PEFR) and age, BMI, Total Exposure Period (TEP), respiratory morbidities, and addictions. However, no significant relation was found between PEFR and the type of shop, whereas prevalence was high on the roadside as compared to closed shops. Conclusions: The prevalence was high in subjects with shops situated on the roadside as compared to the closed ones. This was due to the high TEP, as the shopkeepers worked for longer durations owing to their socioeconomic demands. Therefore, the Total Exposure Period (TEP) plays a greater role than the type of shop.

Environmental and Occupational Factors Associated with Leptospirosis: A Systematic Review

BackgroundLeptospirosis is a neglected emerging zoonotic disease with a profound public health impact worldwide with higher burden of disease in resource-poor countries. The environmental and occupational exposures contribute to human and animal transmission, but the interaction was less explored. A deeper understanding of the critical environmental and occupational drivers in different contexts will provide useful information for disease control and prevention measures. ObjectiveThis review aimed to summarize the potential environmental and occupational risk factors associated with leptospirosis infection. MethodsFour databases (Scopus, Web of Science, Ovid MEDLINE, EBSCOhost) were searched for articles published from 2012 to 2021. Eligible articles were assessed using a checklist for assessing the quality of the studies. The quality of the articles was assessed based on the laboratory diagnosis approach and statistical analysis method. ResultsA total of 32 studies were included in this systematic review. Water-related risk factors such as natural water as the primary water source (AOR 1.8–18.28), water-related recreational activities (AOR 2.36–10.45), flood exposure (AOR 1.54–6.04), contact with mud (AOR 1.57–4.58) and stagnant water (AOR 2.79–6.42) were associated with increased risk of leptospirosis. Infrastructural deficiencies such as un-plastered house walls and thatched houses presented a higher risk (AOR 2.71–5.17). Living in low-lying areas (AOR 1.58–3.74), on clay loam soil (OR 2.72), agricultural land (OR 2.09), and near rubber tree plantations (AOR 11.65) is associated with higher risk of leptospirosis. Contact with rats (AOR 1.4–3.5), livestock (AOR 1.3–10.4), and pigs (AOR 1.54–7.9) is associated with an increased risk of leptospirosis. Outdoor workers (AOR 1.95–3.95) and slaughterhouse workers (AOR 5.1–7.5) have higher risk of leptospirosis. ConclusionThe environmental and occupational components related to water, infrastructure, landscape, agriculture, and exposed animals play an essential role in leptospirosis transmission. The magnitude of those risk factors differs with geographical region, climate factor, urbanization and population growth, and the country’s socioeconomic status.

The outdoor office: a pilot study of environmental qualities, experiences of office workers, and work-related well-being.

Outdoor office work is an emerging aspect of the concept of 'new ways of working', but only sparse data are available about the environmental qualities of the outdoor office space, experiences of office workers, and work-related well-being of outdoor office work. Here, we present an exploratory pilot study on well-being and outdoor office work in a public urban space. An outdoor office was set up in the courtyard of a university campus, and the participants (n = 16) conducted office work outdoors for 30 min and thereafter participated in an eye-tracking session for 11-15 min (n = 8) and subsequently filled out surveys (n = 16). The eye tracker allowed the discovery of natural and built elements in the outdoor environment that caught the participants' visual attention, whereas the surveys assessed aspects of their subjective experiences of the outdoor office space (its visual and spatial qualities) and the work there. The results are presented as network graphs where correlations are shown regarding different aspects of office work outdoors. The results indicate that outdoor office work in a public urban space may promote work-related well-being in terms of positive outdoor office space experiences. Based on the findings, a preliminary set of outdoor office qualities is proposed. Those qualities relate to the legibility and imageability of the outdoor office space, its focal points, and depth/spaciousness, in addition to attributes of usability and environmental richness, including if the outdoor office space affords natural contact and supports activities, in addition to social and individual interactions and relations.

Interdisciplinary approach to defining outdoor places of knowledge work: quantified photo analysis.

Working outdoors is an emerging, sparsely studied phenomenon in knowledge work. Office tasks have traditionally been considered to belong to indoor environments. The worldwide pandemic of COVID-19 has increased and changed attitudes toward multilocational working. The aim of this method study is 2-fold: first to define for interdisciplinary context outdoor environments when they are used as places of outdoor knowledge work and second to quantify the thematic photo analysis to support interdisciplinary understanding of the places of outdoor knowledge work. The review of literature has been one of the methods to support the interdisciplinary approach of this article. The photographs of outdoor knowledge workplaces and views from the workstations are studied through photo analysis customized from the existing press photograph analysis. First, we defined outdoor environments when used as places of outdoor knowledge work, as unconditioned outdoor or semi-outdoor places (opposite to closed indoor spaces with stable, conditioned indoor climate) providing favorable action possibilities as sources of comfort and mitigating unfavorable conditions, for example, by microclimatic solutions. Instead of defining all spaces as outdoor environments not fulfilling a stable indoor climate (conditioned) definition, adaptation to thermal and physical environments also brought semi-outdoor space into the definition. In this context, favorable latent action possibilities (affordance) in the built environment are often related to microclimate as a source of comfort. Second, we focussed on photo analysis. The proposed model is based on journalistic photo analysis PPSA and the pOKW model, which have been further developed in this study to pOKW2 model for analyzing mobile-based collected self-reported photographs by the occupants. In this pOKW2 model, the photographs would have time-location information enabling the combining of data from other datasets and thereby reducing the number of characteristics to be analyzed from the photograph. We proposed rating (in numeric form) to detect the favorable and unfavorable characteristics in the photographs most likely supporting or hindering conditions of outdoor knowledge work. This quantification would enable the use of machine vision analysis and would support handling large quantities of photographs and their combination with other datasets in interdisciplinary research. The quantification of the photo analysis (pOKW2) includes the readiness to combine the analysis results with other time-location-specific datasets in an interdisciplinary research collaboration to advance our understanding of latent action possibilities for outdoor knowledge work.

Subjective evaluation of outdoor environments for sedentary office activities -Trial experiment on two terrace locations -

Today, with various work styles increasing, the outdoor as a workspace is being reconsidered. Some may feel more tolerant of outdoor noise than of indoor one, but there is limited research that mentions how background noise affects humans psychologically in outdoor work environments. Based on the hypothesis that the outdoor tolerance of noise level is higher than the indoor one, we conducted subjective experiments on external terrace locations. In conducting these experiments, we only avoided rainy days and choose two different locations; Location A was a location with a good view, and Location B was a location surrounded by trees, but controlled no other environmental factor. The sound environments in both locations were evaluated as highly "Quiet" and "Easy to have a conversation" even though the noise level was over 60 dB, which is higher than in an ordinary office. Additionally, Location B with a noise level of 71-74 dB was evaluated better in some terms, such as "Motivating" and "Easy to focus on the work", than Location A with a noise level of 61-64 dB. In future work, we plan to conduct experiments to reveal the effect on subjective evaluation by some factors of "prospect-refuge" by Jay Appleton.

Perception of Noise Pollution Among Youths and Adults in Urban Puducherry, South India.

Objective The study seeks to assess the perceptions of people on evaluating the sources of noise, noise-induced health issues, and noise regulation awareness among the exposed population present in the study site of urban Puducherry, South India. Methods A cross-sectional survey using a pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire was conducted between July and August 2021 in 32 study sites in urban Puducherry to evaluate how adults and youth perceive noise pollution. The questionnaire gathered details on their sociodemographic characteristics, knowledge of the problems associated with noise pollution, source of noise pollution, effects of noise on health, and awareness of regulations related to noise pollution. Results Half of the study participants perceive that noise pollution is a problem in their localities; the majority feel disturbed by that noise; and the most prevalent reason given for noise pollution is traffic noise. Most of the participants reported that trouble paying attention to work or conversations was the most frequent health impact of noise pollution. Participants who are employed, have formal education, belong to families above the poverty line, and reside near the main road and sub-main road (less than 200 meters) showed a significant association (p-value <0.05) with perceived noise pollution problems. Conclusion Based on the findings, it can be concluded that respondents in urban Puducherry perceive traffic noise as the most common source of noise pollution. The majority of the participants felt that the excessive noise made it difficult for them to focus on their work. Individuals who reside or work close to a major highway and outdoor workers believe noise pollution is a big problem.

Information and avoidance behaviour: The effect of air pollution disclosure on labour supply in China

Although many studies have documented the negative impact of pollution on labour supply, few have investigated how it is affected by pollution information disclosure. This article analyses the question by using the exogenous shock of the launch of China's air pollution information disclosure programme. By using the difference‐in‐differences method and survey data for migrant workers, the authors find that such disclosure significantly decreased the working hours of outdoor workers. These findings highlight the importance of information disclosure, which could result in changes in workers' behaviour. Moreover, they indicate that measuring the cost of pollution without addressing the problem of information asymmetry may lead to bias.

Temporal effects of an original myopia song on school children’s myopia and awareness: a 3-year prospective study

ABSTRACT Clinical Relevance Raising children’s myopia prevention awareness and behaviour tends to exhibits a protective effect against myopia among schoolchildren. Background To investigate the effect of an original myopia song in raising school children’s awareness of healthier eye use behaviour and on myopia prevention. Methods In this prospective randomised control study, two groups of students from one primary schools in Jiangxi, China, were enrolled and monitored from grade 3 to grade 6 (2016–2019). The primary outcome was the change in axial length (AL) after the intervention. Secondary outcomes included changes in spherical equivalent refraction (SER), near work and outdoor time, corrected near and distant visual acuity, visual discomfort score (VDS) and accommodative lag. Results Four hundred students (193 females, 48.25%) aged 9.3 (range 8–10) years with emmetropia to moderate myopia were enrolled. Children in the myopia song group had a significantly shorter AL and less myopic refractive change than those in the control group (p = 0.04 and 0.02, respectively). Compared with the control group, children in the myopia song group spent less time on near work and more time outdoors (p = 0.04 and 0.04, respectively). At the final follow-up, the proportion of children with myopia was significantly lower in the myopia song group (30.5%) than in the control group (41%) (p = 0.03). No significant differences were found for the secondary outcomes, including corrected near and distant visual acuity, VDS and accommodative lag. Conclusions An original myopia song performed twice daily in primary schools appeared to have a modest effect on myopia control among school-aged children by changing their lifestyles in the long term.

Increasing exposure to the UV filters octocrylene and 2-ethylhexyl salicylate in Germany from 1996 to 2020: Human biomonitoring in 24-h urine samples of the German Environmental Specimen Bank (ESB)

The UV filters octocrylene (OC) and 2-ethylhexyl salicylate (EHS) are commonly used in sunscreens and frequently detected in environmental media. However, knowledge on human exposures is scarce.In this human biomonitoring (HBM) study, we analyzed concentrations of exposure biomarkers specific to OC (CPAA, DOCCA, 5OH-OC) and EHS (5OH-EHS, 5oxo-EHS, 5cx-EPS) in 24-h urine samples (n = 420) from the German Environmental Specimen Bank (ESB). These samples were collected from German students (20–29 years; 30 males/30 females per year) between 1996 and 2020 (4-year intervals; collection in winter).We found continuously increasing OC and EHS exposures (Jonckheere-Terpstra; p < 0.001) documented by very few to no samples with concentrations of the most sensitive biomarkers CPAA and 5cx-EPS above the limit of quantification (LOQ) in 1996 (5 % and 0 %, respectively) and reaching 100 % and 93 % above the LOQ in 2016, with median concentrations of 4.79 and 0.071 µg/L, respectively. In 2020, biomarker concentrations slightly decreased to 3.12 µg/L CPAA (97 %>LOQ) and 0.060 µg/L 5cx-EPS (88 %>LOQ). This general trend was confirmed by the other biomarkers, however at lower detection rates. Based on metabolite excretion in the 24-h urine samples and human toxicokinetic data, we calculated maximum daily intakes (DI) of 17 µg/(kg bw * d) OC and 59 µg/(kg bw * d) EHS. Based on a derived no-effect level (DNEL) of 0.8 mg/(kg bw * d), the OC exposures of individuals in our study did not indicate any health risk. Similarly, for EHS all biomarker concentrations were well below the HBM-I values of 12 µg/L 5OH-EHS and 11 µg/L 5cx-EPS.Our data proves the general applicability of specific OC and EHS metabolites for HBM in the general population and shows clearly increasing exposures. Higher (co-)exposures must be expected in populations with increased sunscreen use such as (summer) vacationers, children and outdoor workers.

Mitigating Heat Exposure: Exploring the Role of Knowledge, Risk Perception, and Precautionary Behavior

Increasing ambient temperatures due to climate change have significantly impacted workers’ physical and mental workloads, affecting their health and safety. Promoting precautionary behaviors, especially among outdoor workers, is an effective strategy widely recommended for addressing these challenges. Precautionary behavior represents an essential protective mechanism that can be adopted at the individual level. This study explores the connections among Occupational Safety and Health (OSH), risk perception, and precautionary behavior. Descriptive statistics and Structural Equation Modeling with the Partial Least Squares approach were used to analyze the data. This study was conducted at two forest management units in Central Java and East Java, Indonesia, where daily air temperatures are relatively high. The research involved 100 respondents, comprising 50 indoor and 50 outdoor workers. The findings of this investigation reveal that OSH-related knowledge among indoor workers predicts their precautionary behavior. Nevertheless, according to the model, attempts to improve precautionary behavior through knowledge enhancement are estimated to be unsuccessful among outdoor workers. Nonetheless, OSH-related knowledge can facilitate workers in developing a more realistic perception, especially regarding the “dread risk factor” among forestry workers, which can positively impact their precautionary behavior. Keywords: forestry worker, heat exposure, mediation analysis, occupational health, psychometrics paradigm

The Influence of the Exposome in the Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma, a Multicenter Case-Control Study.

The concept of exposome refers to the total of harmful and beneficial environmental exposures that can help predict the organism's biological responses over time. Ultraviolet radiation (UVR) from sun exposure has been recognized as the main etiological agent of skin cancer, and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is one most commonly associated with chronic exposure. However, in recent years, evidence suggests that lifestyle, environmental pollution, and contaminants in water and food can have an influence. To study the relationship between SCC and sun exposure, pollution, stress, and lifestyle in a Spanish cohort. A multicenter case-control study was carried out in which 13 dermatologists from different regions of Spain recruited cases and controls between April 2020 and August 2022. The group of cases were patients diagnosed with SCC and, as a control group, people who attended Dermatology consultations as companions with no history of skin cancer. A total of 62 patients with SCC and 126 controls were included (62.9% males, median age 76.46 (10.1) and 33.3%, median age 55.7 (15), respectively). The SCC group had experienced more outside work than the controls (75% vs. 22.4%, p < 0.001), less recreational exposure (sunbathing, p = 0.05, and outdoor sports, p = 0.01), and a lower annual income (p = 0.01), with an increase in tobacco exposure (p < 0.001), without differences in other carcinogens, such as ionizing radiation or chemical exposure. The control group had a higher daily screentime use (p < 0.001) and practiced more relaxation activities (p = 0.03). A higher linolenic acid intake and lower coffee consumption were the only dietary variables associated with SCC (p < 0.05). Some chronic medications (anxiolytics, antidepressants, beta-blockers, statins, hydrochlorothiazide, ACE inhibitors, metformin, and omeprazole) were also statistically associated with SCC. Statistical significance for all aforementioned variables was maintained in the multivariate analysis (p < 0.05). The study found a significant association between SCC and multiple exposome-related factors in addition to chronic sun exposure in the Spanish population. Primary prevention strategies should target specific populations, such as outdoor workers promoting sun-safe behaviors and stress-reducing activities, in addition to adequate skin photoprotection in patients under certain medications associated with SCC.

A deep learning-based high-temperature overtime working alert system for smart cities with multi-sensor data

ABSTRACT Prolonged heat exposure may cause various physiological responses to outdoor workers. This will result in economic and productivity losses for a company and also may affect the sustainable development speed of cities. To avoid the above adverse effects, an alerting system is designed for outdoor workers to prevent them from overtime working in high-temperature scenarios. In the system, multiple sensors embedded micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) wearable device is used for real-time working status data collection, and a hybrid deep learning model is adopted to recognise the working status of outdoor workers. This hybrid model, called C-LSTM, combines the advantages of convolutional neural networks (CNN) and long short-term memory networks (LSTM) to extract useful spatial and temporal features of working status efficiently. Experimental results show that the performance on the inference time and accuracy of the C-LSTM model is better than that of conventional ones. The working status recognition accuracy of the C-LSTM model reaches 97.91%, and the inference time of the model reduces to less than 51 ms. In addition, the C-LSTM model has the best stability. The designed system can not only be used in outdoor high-temperature environment but also applied to medical and industrial scenarios, which further extends the application fields.

Global, regional and national burdens of non-melanoma skin cancer attributable to occupational exposure to solar ultraviolet radiation for 183 countries, 2000–2019: A systematic analysis from the WHO/ILO Joint Estimates of the Work-related Burden of Disease and Injury

BackgroundA World Health Organization (WHO) and International Labour Organization (ILO) systematic review reported sufficient evidence for higher risk of non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) amongst people occupationally exposed to solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR). This article presents WHO/ILO Joint Estimates of global, regional, national and subnational occupational exposures to UVR for 195 countries/areas and the global, regional and national attributable burdens of NMSC for 183 countries, by sex and age group, for the years 2000, 2010 and 2019. MethodsWe calculated population-attributable fractions (PAFs) from estimates of the population occupationally exposed to UVR and the risk ratio for NMSC from the WHO/ILO systematic review. Occupational exposure to UVR was modelled via proxy of occupation with outdoor work, using 166 million observations from 763 cross-sectional surveys for 96 countries/areas. Attributable NMSC burden was estimated by applying the PAFs to WHO’s estimates of the total NMSC burden. Measures of inequality were calculated. ResultsGlobally in 2019, 1.6 billion workers (95 % uncertainty range [UR] 1.6–1.6) were occupationally exposed to UVR, or 28.4 % (UR 27.9–28.8) of the working-age population. The PAFs were 29.0 % (UR 24.7–35.0) for NMSC deaths and 30.4 % (UR 29.0–31.7) for disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). Attributable NMSC burdens were 18,960 deaths (UR 18,180–19,740) and 0.5 million DALYs (UR 0.4–0.5). Men and older age groups carried larger burden. Over 2000–2019, attributable deaths and DALYs almost doubled. ConclusionsWHO and the ILO estimate that occupational exposure to UVR is common and causes substantial, inequitable and growing attributable burden of NMSC. Governments must protect outdoor workers from hazardous exposure to UVR and attributable NMSC burden and inequalities.

Outdoor Worker Stress Monitoring Electronics with Nanofabric Radiative Cooler‐Based Thermal Management (Adv. Healthcare Mater. 28/2023)

Outdoor Worker Stress Monitoring Electronics with Nanofabric Radiative Cooler‐Based Thermal Management (Adv. Healthcare Mater. 28/2023)

Study of risk factors in myopic individuals among medical students in Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Background: The incidence of myopia is increasing at an alarming rate. Investigating the causes of myopia gives us a better understanding of it. This gives us better odds of preventing the occurrence and retarding the condition's progression. The study used a method called stratified sampling to select 100 individuals who were near-sighted. They belonged to the age of 17-30 years old and pursued medicine in the district of Kanchipuram. The role of risk factors was assessed through a questionnaire. Result: The percentage of subjects with low, medium, and high myopia was 77, 18, and 5, respectively. The role of heredity, diet, academic performance, time spent doing near work, and outdoor work was indeed found to play significant roles in the development and progression of myopia. Conclusion: The incidence of myopia is constantly increasing, especially in Asian countries. To prevent myopia and its complications, we need to take significant steps to reduce the risk factors that can be changed.