What We Can Do to Prevent the Rise of Myopia in Children

By the middle of this century, childhood myopia (nearsightedness) is
expected to reach epidemic proportions in the United States and around the
world.

Katherine Lee, MD, PhD, medical director of paediatric ophthalmology at St.
Luke’s Regional Hospital in Boise, Idaho, and president of the American
Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus, notes that there
has been a steady increase in the prevalence of myopia in children over the
past half-century. “Both trends are concerning,” one expert said, “because
if myopia is growing faster and beginning in children, then a good number
of youngsters will be considerably nearsighted by the time childhood is
over.”