Women's Science Open Class | @Primary and secondary school students and parents, famous doctors from Peking Union Medical College talk about myopia prevention and control

Mobile phones, computers and other electronic products are everywhere around children and adolescents, resulting in an increasing number of "little glasses". According to the latest data released by the National Health Commission, the overall myopia rate among children and adolescents in my country is 52.7%.

The situation of myopia prevention and control is severe. For individuals, wearing glasses is not only inconvenient, but also seals the "beautiful face" by glasses, so it is important to protect your eyes.

This issue of "Women's Science Open Class" specially invited Li Hui, professor of ophthalmology and doctoral supervisor at Peking Union Medical College Hospital, to give a lecture on "Strategies for Preventing and Controlling Myopia in Adolescents" to students.

Let’s tell you how to prevent and control myopia.

▶ Primary school is the "golden period" for myopia prevention and control

The primary school stage (6-12 years old) is the golden period for myopia prevention and control, and 6-9 years old is the diamond period in the golden period. For students with normal vision but high risk factors for myopia or insufficient hyperopia reserve, early prevention and focused intervention should be carried out.

Three steps to prevent myopia: eye behavior, appropriate lighting, and outdoor activities.

Cultivate healthy eye behavior

Understand scientific eye use and eye protection knowledge, and adhere to the 20-20-20 rule.

That is, after looking at electronic products for 20 minutes, look into the distance of 20 feet (6 meters) for at least 20 seconds. This can effectively prevent eyestrain and reduce the progression of myopia.

Strengthen outdoor activities and physical exercise to reduce students' academic burden; cultivate and urge children and adolescents to develop good eye hygiene habits and establish eye-loving and eye-protecting behaviors.

· Build a visually healthy environment

Families and schools should reduce students' homework and extracurricular training burdens, improve lighting conditions, and equip desks and chairs suitable for the height of children and adolescents. The media and communities should increase publicity of relevant standards and knowledge. Create a supportive social environment.

Increase daytime outdoor activities

Schools, families and communities work together to reduce the long-term nearsightedness of children and adolescents, take a variety of measures to provide children and adolescents with relevant conditions, and urge them to carry out outdoor activities for more than 2 hours a day.

▶ The earlier myopia is controlled, the greater the benefit

There are two main factors that affect myopia:

The first is genetic factors. For high myopia, genetic factors are more obvious; for low and moderate myopia, genes and environment work together to cause it; the risk of myopia in adolescents whose parents are myopic is significantly increased, and is positively correlated with the degree of myopia of their parents.

The second is environmental factors, such as frequent use of the eyes at close range, few outdoor activities, reading and writing habits, lighting and nutrition, sleep time, trace elements, and the use of electronic products, which are the main reasons for the high incidence of myopia in children and adolescents.

Data shows that in 2020, the myopia rate among children aged 6-8 has increased significantly. The younger the age of myopia onset, the faster the average progression. The study found that the average progression rate of 7-year-old children is almost twice that of 11-year-old children.

Without intervention, 53.9% of children who develop myopia at the age of 7 or 8 will develop high myopia in adulthood, which has become one of the main causes of vision loss.

The earlier myopia is controlled, the greater the benefit. The ultimate goal is to reduce the growth rate of myopia at the age when myopia grows rapidly, thereby reducing the incidence of high myopia.

Therefore, for children and adolescents who already have myopia, it is recommended to go to a medical institution to undergo medical optometry and other refractive examinations to make a clear diagnosis and take timely corrective measures.

▶ How to control the increase of myopia?

The two ways to slow down the progression of myopia in children are drug control and optical intervention.

Drug control is to use atropine eye drops, which has reached an expert consensus in the prevention and control of myopia in children and adolescents. Studies have confirmed that 0.01% atropine eye drops have a good effect in slowing the progression of myopia, with minimal rebound effect after discontinuation of medication, and have a cumulative effect on myopia control.

Optical intervention is to wear glasses. Many people worry that wearing glasses will make their children's myopia worse. This is a misunderstanding. Wearing glasses with appropriate degrees in time can obtain clear vision and reduce the rate of myopia development. The second is to wear orthokeratology lenses, or OK lenses. Orthokeratology technology is a powerful means of myopia control, but it requires rigorous evaluation by doctors, comprehensive and careful examinations, and appropriate wearing.

In short, drug control + optical intervention, a combination of measures, can curb the rapid progression of myopia to the greatest extent.

If you want to learn more about popular science, please continue to pay attention to the women's science open classes.

The "Women's Science Open Class" is hosted by the Publicity Department of the All-China Women's Federation. It aims to invite science experts to teach science courses on campuses, science education bases and other related places, discuss a series of topics such as the healthy growth of young people and scientific knowledge, and widely disseminate them to primary and secondary school students, parents and families across the country.

Next, the "Women's Science Open Class" will organize more authoritative experts to enter primary and secondary school campuses, street communities and other places to hold lectures on a series of topics related to the healthy growth of young people, aerospace, scientific knowledge, etc. The lecture process will be recorded into a series of science courses and pushed to primary and secondary school students and parents across the country to help everyone actively learn and apply scientific knowledge, consciously resist pseudoscience, anti-science and other bad phenomena, and arm their minds with scientific ideas.

Source: Publicity Department of the All-China Women's Federation