A new report suggests that as many as one-third of children across the planet are now short-sighted.
The study, which was published by the British Journal of Ophthalmology, says that short-sightedness (which means people struggle to see things in the distance clearly) was exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, as children were less likely to be outdoors and would have spent more time indoors with screens.
“Emerging evidence suggests a potential association between the pandemic and accelerated vision deterioration among young adults,” the report said, according to the BBC.
The study says that between 1990 and 2023 the incidence of short-sightedness (or myopia) amongst children and teenagers tripled to 36%.
The condition is most common in Asia – in Japan 85% of children are myopic, and 73% in South Korea.
The lowest rates were in Paraguay and Uganda where about 1% of young people were short-sighted.
By 2050 as many as half of young people could be short-sighted.
Image by Alisa Dyson from Pixabay