With all the children returning back to school this week, it’s important to reiterate our concerns of myopia that are affecting a lot of children in the modern age. The number of children being diagnosed with myopia is increasing every day so much that the World Health Organization has deemed this to be an epidemic.
What is myopia?
Myopia is blurry long-distance vision, often called “short-sighted’’ or “near-sighted”. A person with myopia can see clearly up close such as looking at their phone or reading a book, however viewing distance objects such as driving, copying from the blackboard or watching television can be blurry.
What causes myopia?
As your child is growing through childhood and adolescence so is their eyeball. Myopia or short-sightedness arises if the eyeball grows too long for the focusing power of the eye. This explains why myopia typically onsets in childhood and progresses until maturity.
This elongation affects the structural integrity of the tissues inside the eye, increasing risk of ocular health complications such as myopic maculopathy, retinal detachment and glaucoma.
In addition to this, there are two other main causes of myopia: lifestyle and family history. Contemporary lifestyles are seeing young children spending more time indoors and on digital devices such as tablets, handheld gaming consoles and smartphones, increasing the risk of developing myopia.
When one or both parents are myopic, the child’s risk of developing myopia, and in particular high myopia, increases.
If your child hasn’t had their annual eye test this year, it’s a good idea to bring them in and have them assessed for their risks of developing myopia. To learn more, head over to our website where we have articles talking about it in depth.
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