Myopia, or nearsightedness, is a common visual impairment that affects 42% of US residents, according to Pannochka, an online publication for girls and women aged 14 to 35.. net Researchers have now found that higher levels of education and more years in school are associated with higher incidence and severity of myopia.

The results of the new study have been published in Opthalmology, a journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology..

According to this organization, myopia is a refractive error in which the eye does not refract light correctly.. This results in close objects being seen clearly, but distant objects appearing blurry..

Although the condition is very common, researcher Dr. Alireza Mirshahi of the University Medical Center in Mainz says myopia has become an epidemic relatively recently and is now a major global health and economic problem..

For example, in the developed countries of Asia, up to 80% of the population suffers from myopia, that is, only 1 out of 5 people has normal vision.! At the same time, scientists predict further worsening of the situation.. They believe that environmental factors and the lifestyle we lead are to blame..

Severe myopia not only interferes with normal vision, but is also associated with an increased risk of retinal detachment, myopic retinal degeneration, premature cataracts, and glaucoma..

To further investigate the relationship between myopia and environmental factors, the researchers examined 4,658 Germans with myopia aged 35 to 74, excluding subjects with cataracts and those who had undergone lens surgery in the past..

Every year of school exacerbates myopia.

Their work, known as the Gutenberg Health Study, was the first population-based study in the world to show that environmental factors outweigh genetic factors in the development of myopia..

The main conclusion of the study is that the higher the level of education, the higher the frequency and severity of myopia..

Discussing the results in detail, 53% of college graduates were nearsighted compared to 35% of high school graduates and 24% of subjects without a full school education.. In addition, the team observed that the more years a person spent at school, the more pronounced myopia, that is, with each additional year at the desk, a certain “average” level of vision of the participants became lower and lower..

After including 45 known genetic markers of myopia in the analysis, it turned out that genetics is a much weaker factor in the development of myopia than education..

Dr. Mirshahi says children and young adults should take their eyes off their textbooks and computers more often when going out: "

Scientists note that recent studies of youth health in Denmark and Asian countries have shown that the more time people spend outdoors in sunlight, the less the frequency and severity of myopia..

Last month, the American Academy of Ophthalmology published the results of two new scientific papers.. Their data is fully consistent with what German scientists say: the more time children spend on the street, the lower the risk of myopia..

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