One in two people could be myopic in 2050. With one billion cases of severe myopia, this visual disorder could become the leading cause of blindness.
In about thirty years, more than 5 billion people will be myopic, that is to say half of the planet. And among them, a billion will have an increased risk of going blind. Myopia would then become the leading cause of permanent blindness. This forecast is the result of a australian study published in the magazine Ophthalmology.
Researchers from the University of New South Wales (Australia) and the Institute of Vision Research in Singapore analyzed more than 145 studies involving 2 million participants. From these data, they were able to estimate the number of people with myopia and severe myopia in the coming decades.
According to their models, 4,758 million people will be myopic in 2050 and 938 million will suffer from severe myopia. The rapid increase in the prevalence of myopia is attributed to “environmental factors, mainly related to a reduction in the time spent outdoors to work indoors”, explain the authors. Numerous studies, a large part of which have been carried out on animals, have in fact shown that exposure to daylight reduces the risk of myopia. A Chinese study published in September 2015 in the JAMA even showed in 6-year-old children that spending an extra 40 minutes a day outdoors reduced the risk of developing this eye disorder.
Risks of complications
The researchers also point out that this high prevalence will represent a major health challenge. In fact, myopia predisposes to various eye diseases such as damage to the macula (in the case of very high myopia), retinal lesions (predisposing to retinal detachment) but also to glaucoma. Pathologies that can lead to blindness if left untreated.
“We need to ensure that our children have regular eye exams, preferably annually, to put in place the necessary preventative strategies,” says Professor Kovin Naidoo, director of the Brien Holden Institute of Vision at the University of New South Wales. These can include increasing time spent outdoors and reducing time spent in front of screens.”
Finally, the researchers insist on the importance of developing treatments capable of controlling the progression of this ocular disorder in order to prevent the onset of severe myopia. They imagine that these therapies could be complementary to the contact lenses and glasses used today.
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