One in three children are short-sighted, a new study has suggested.
The research, published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology, analysed 276 studies encompassing more than five million participants across the globe.
Their results painted a poor picture of the state of eyesight among young people worldwide.
Not only did it find that “approximately one-third of children and adolescents” were affected by myopia – the medical name for short-sightedness – but also that young people’s eyesight was getting worse.
A number of groups “notably” suffered from myopia at higher rates, with the condition particularly prevalent in urban areas and east Asian countries such as Singapore and China.
Young people and children from east Asia are “more than twice as likely to be myopic as similar white peers” with prevalence in the region described as “alarmingly high compared with the rest of the world”.
Meanwhile, rates of myopia were particularly low in countries such as Paraguay, Uganda, Burkina Faso and Sudan, the study said.
Factors related to this included genetics, as well as when schooling began, the study said, highlighting how in east Asia education began far younger than elsewhere.
In the UK and Ireland, the prevalence of myopia among the young was found to be about 15%.
From 1990 to 2023, the study claimed that myopia increased significantly – describing the condition as “a major public health concern nowadays”.
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The study outlined the possible impact of the COVID pandemic, saying that the lockdowns, specifically the decrease in outdoor activities and increase in screen time, could have contributed to worsening myopia.
There were also differences between genders, with adolescence leading to a three times higher likelihood of males developing myopia compared to females.
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To look after their eyesight, the study encouraged young people to regularly practise “eye-protective measures”, as well as increasing time spent exercising and decreasing time spent in front of screens.
