Children's Eyesight Getting Worse, Say Experts
More than one in three children and teenagers around the world are shortsighted, according to a new study — and screen time may be to blame.
Researchers from China said young people's eyesight is getting worse, and shortsightedness — also called myopia — could affect more than 740 million children and teenagers by 2050.
Rates are higher in some countries, especially those in Asia. According to the study, 85% of children in Japan and 73% in South Korea may already be shortsighted.
The researchers got their data by looking at 276 studies from 1990 to 2023 involving more than 5 million children and teenagers from 50 countries around the world.
Between 1990 and 2000, they estimated that 24% of children and teenagers were shortsighted. This increased a little to 25% between 2001 and 2010, and then rose to 30% between 2011 and 2019.
Between 2020 and 2023 — a period that included the coronavirus pandemic — 36% of young people were estimated to be shortsighted.
The researchers said the pandemic may have had an effect on myopia, since young people spent more time inside, often using screens.
Based on the data, they predicted that about 40% of young people could be shortsighted by 2050.
The study said myopia may be more likely to affect girls aged between 13 and 19.
Although the research team said they believe their predictions are quite accurate, the number of young people whose data was used varied quite a lot from country to country.
In Japan, data from about 1,200 young people was included, while in China that number was almost 2 million.
However, Japanese schools have acknowledged that shortsightedness is common among students.
