US myopia study confirms ‘alarming’ trend

Results of a second major myopia study to be released this week have shown the incidence of childhood myopia among American children has more than doubled over the last 50 years.

According to a study of 9,000 Los Angeles-area children by the USC Eye Institute, the incidence of childhood myopia is increasing at ‘an alarming pace’.

The university said the findings echoed a ‘troubling trend among adults and children in Asia, where 90 percent or more of the population have been diagnosed with myopia, up from 10 to 20 percent 60 years ago’.

The Multi-Ethnic Pediatric Eye Disease Study MEPEDS, conducted by researchers and clinicians from the USC Eye Institute at Keck Medicine at USC in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health, found that the incidence of childhood myopia in the US to be greatest in African-American children, followed by Asian-American children, Hispanic/Latino and Non-Hispanic white children.