Myopia is gaining ground, especially in developed countries, and the projections are not reassuring. This vision disorder, which in some cases can lead to serious complications, affected 20% of the world’s population in the year 2000. This proportion would have fallen to 1/3 now and within thirty years, half of the inhabitants of the planet who could be affected, according to projections
Asia is the most affected continent. In Singapore or Taiwan, for example, nine out of ten young adults are myopic; in Japan, China or South Korea, nine out of ten students wear glasses. This is why some Asian countries have centers exclusively dedicated to medical care and research on pathological myopia.
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But Europe is also facing significant progress. If genetic and hereditary factors exist in the appearance of myopia, it is above all the environment that would play a major role in the development and aggravation of this disorder; in particular activities requiring near vision.
According to Professor Nicolas Leveziel, head of the ophthalmology department at the University Hospital Center of Poitiers, interviewed by Valerie Cohen, “ it is mainly environmental factors that explain this increase in myopia in the world and it is believed that the level of education plays an important role. The more you are in countries with a high level of education, the more you are in countries where educational pressure is important, and the more you have significant degrees of myopia. I am thinking, for example, of Taiwan or Singapore. »
Reading and screen work associated with increased myopia
“ Near vision activities, therefore often education, in any case reading, for example, or working on a screen, are associated with an increase in myopia. And in contrast, outdoor activities seem protective, in terms of myopia and reduce the number of incident myopia. There are studies that show that time spent outdoors is beneficial in terms of reducing the number of myopias. There is typically a study that is presented frequently, where Chinese children, living in Hong Kong or Chinese children living in Sydney – although they were of the same ethnic origin – there were ten times as many nearsighted people in Hong Kong than ‘in Sydney »
According to specialists, two hours a day of exposure to outdoor light reduce the risk to develop myopia by three. There is therefore a real prevention policy to be implemented.
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