ObjectiveTo systematically review the effectiveness of outdoor activities in preventing myopia progression, and to provide scientific evidence for myopia prevention and management.MethodsPubMed, MEDLINE, EMbase, CNKI and WanFang Data databases were searched from establishment to October 2017. Two researchers independently screened literature, extracted data and assessed the risk of bias of included studies. Then, meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.3 software.ResultsA total of 10 studies involving 24 667 participants were included. The results of meta-analysis showed that the incidence of myopia in outdoor activities group was lower than that in control group (OR=0.67, 95%CI 0.55 to 0.81, P<0.000 1).ConclusionThe current evidence shows that outdoor activities have protective effects on emmetropia children myopia onset. Due to the limited quality and quantity of included studies, more high quality studies are needed to verify the above conclusions.