Adapted from BMJ 28 Sept 2024
When I was at school, in a class of 42 pupils, there were a handful of children who wore spectacles. I was one of them. It wasn’t uncommon, but it wasn’t a third of the class.
A global review has found that from 1990 to 2023 the overall prevalence of myopia (shortsightedness) in children and teenagers has more than tripled. It was 24% between 1990 to 2000, but now it is 36% from 2020 -2023.
The review of 276 worldwide studies predicts that this will reach around 40% by 2050.
Factors that increase the chances of becoming myopic are living in east Asia, living in urban areas, being female and having a high school education.
Being myopic doesn’t just affect your ability to see the blackboard, or figure out who is waving to you across the street, your night vision is also adversely affected.
Diabetes Diet 
I wonder why those factors are important. My hubby’s a biostatistician prof. It would be interesting to see whether these are associations or actually significant.
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I know that reading a lot in childhood, particularly in poor light is a cause. We already know that the worst performing group academically in the UK are white boys. Asian parents tend to be very keen on education, girls are more swotty than boys, and perhaps there are parents with higher levels of education in cities than in rural areas. It would be interesting to ask your husband what he thinks.
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