One in two people is myopic! Don’t ignore the prevention and control of myopia in children

Is your child's eyesight good?

In recent years, due to the popularity of various electronic products, excessive use of eyes, lack of outdoor activities and other factors, myopia rates have continued to rise, and myopia is becoming more and more serious at younger ages and with more severe forms. According to the "White Paper on Eye Health in China" released by the National Health Commission in 2020, the overall myopia rate among children and adolescents nationwide was 53.6% in 2018, which means that one in every two children and adolescents in my country is myopic.

In order to implement the important instructions and instructions of General Secretary Xi Jinping on the problem of myopia among students and effectively strengthen the prevention and control of myopia among children and adolescents in the new era, on June 3, on the occasion of the 26th "National Eye Care Day" (June 6), the 2021 First Myopia Prevention and Control Theme Seminar "Protecting Bright Eyes and Building a Bright Future" hosted by the People's Political Consultative Conference Newspaper was held in Beijing. Many members of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and experts urged that we should work together and take multiple measures to protect the eye health of children and adolescents.

Myopia ranks first among diseases causing disability and blindness

"The National Vision Health Report published in 2015 shows that in 2012, the socioeconomic costs caused by various visual disabilities and visual defects reached 560 billion yuan, accounting for 1.1% of my country's GDP. Epidemiological surveys show that the disability and blindness rates of myopia are ranked first among all diseases." Wang Ningli, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, academician of the International Academy of Ophthalmology, and dean of the School of Ophthalmology of Capital Medical University, expressed deep concern about this. He emphasized that myopia prevention and control has become a national strategy and a national action, and it is urgent.

Kang Zefeng, deputy director and chief physician of the Ophthalmology Hospital of the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, and chairman of the Ophthalmology Branch of the Chinese Association of Traditional Chinese Medicine, has deep feelings about this. Studies have shown that controlling myopia within 600 degrees before the age of 18 can effectively reduce 74% of cataracts, 67% of glaucoma, 99% of macular degeneration and 98% of retinal detachment.

"Pathological myopia may lead to complications such as retinal degeneration, atrophy, detachment, cataracts, glaucoma and macular hemorrhage. It can be said that myopia has become a major public health problem in our country, seriously affecting the health of the people," said Kang Zefeng.

Feng Danli, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and director of Beijing Guangcai Mingtian Eye Hospital, also said that she was surprised to learn by chance 20 years ago that the vision problems of children and adolescents in my country were very serious. Over the past 20 years, myopia has become increasingly serious at younger ages and with more severe degrees. The health of children's eyes is related to the happiness of every family and the development of the country and nation. I hope that it can attract the attention of all parties.

The difficulty in preventing and controlling myopia is related to my country's education system

When talking about the pain points and difficulties in myopia prevention and control, experts at the meeting unanimously agreed that this is related to my country's education system.

"Education in China still uses scores as the most important measurement indicator. Everyone is equal only in front of scores. In order to get 10 or 8 more points, children often pay the price of 100, 200 or 300 degrees of myopia." Wang Ningli regretfully said that in the face of fierce social competition, parents often pursue prestigious schools and high-paying jobs, and their children's eye health is neglected.

File photo. Image source: Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Bo/Photo

Tao Yuequn, vice chairman of the Anhui Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese and vice chairman of the Anhui Myopia Prevention and Treatment Research Association, said frankly, why does myopia develop so quickly? Long-term, close-range use of the eyes is the most fundamental factor. Why is this so? It is closely related to my country's education system. Today's exams are mainly based on knowledge, and students have to spend time reading and memorizing every day. According to him, some first and second grade primary school students have to do their homework until after 9 pm, and junior high school students have to do it until 11 pm. "How can you not be myopic if you use your eyes for such a long time at close range?"

How to solve this problem? Wang Ningli said that education is not all about sitting on the desk, but should also be interspersed with outdoor activities, and this kind of education is more important. We have a lot of room for reform in education, and we must pay attention to quality education and truly implement the all-round development of morality, intelligence and physique.

Tao Yuequn said that many of our educational methods are methods for training skilled workers, because skilled workers need to practice constantly, practice makes perfect, and do well. But in the end, many innovative researches are not based on practice, but on thinking and analysis. Therefore, it is necessary to reform the content, method and scoring method of the examination and fundamentally reform the examination system.

The key to the prevention and control of myopia in preschool

It was the consensus of the experts at the meeting that the myopia prevention and control threshold should be moved forward to kindergarten and preschool age.

Wang Ningli gave an example, saying that if a child still has 150-200 degrees of hyperopia reserve at the age of 6, the probability of developing myopia in primary school is less than 1%; if the hyperopia reserve is gone by the first grade of primary school, the probability of developing myopia is 85%. This tells us that kindergarten is the source of myopia development, and the control of hyperopia reserve of preschool children is the top priority of myopia prevention and control.

Shi Wei, deputy director of the Department of Ophthalmology at Beijing Children's Hospital affiliated to Capital Medical University, further stated that 0-6 years old is the critical period for children's visual development, but vision screening for young infants and toddlers aged 0-3 is often overlooked. For example, some 3-year-old children are already myopic by 400 to 500 degrees, and everyone may think that this is moderate myopia. In fact, a normal 3-year-old child should have a hyperopia reserve of about 200 degrees. If there is no such reserve and the myopia is 400 to 500 degrees, it is already the standard of high myopia. Therefore, vision screening for 0-3 years old should not be ignored, and this is also an important aspect of moving the threshold of myopia prevention and control forward.

Cheng Kai, a member of the Beijing CPPCC and a professor at Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, also stressed that the key to myopia prevention and control lies in moving the checkpoints forward. "For example, primary schools can introduce key objective indicators every year starting from the first grade. In the past, visual acuity testing was a subjective assessment, but now we need to add refractive index assessment, play the role of medical treatment, and we can diagnose 99% of visual problems."

How to prevent and control myopia in children and adolescents? Wang Guoqiang, former director of the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, said that this is a huge systematic project, and it is necessary to use systematic thinking, coordinate actions from all aspects, and cooperate for win-win results. We must adhere to the principle of giving equal importance to traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine, and combine traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine, and give full play to the unique advantages of traditional Chinese medicine in eye health and myopia prevention and control. We must adhere to prevention first, combining prevention and treatment, and overcome the tendency to focus on treatment and neglect prevention.

Wang Ningli emphasized that the key to myopia prevention and control is to control hyperopia reserves in kindergartens and preschools, control the progression of myopia in primary and secondary schools, and control the complications of high myopia in universities. He hopes that there will be Chinese products and solutions for myopia prevention and control.

"When entering children's visual development files, parent information should also be entered, because myopia has certain genetic factors. For example, children whose parents both have myopia of more than 600 degrees should be listed as key prevention and control groups. At the same time, there should be some compulsory measures at the policy level to control children's use of electronic products." Shi Wei reminded.

Source: Science and Technology Daily