果冻影院

In a new paper published in聽PLOS One, researchers showed that, within the study, there were a聽higher number of people diagnosed with short-sightedness聽within the聽younger population聽than those聽born between 1939 and 1944.

Short-sightedness is when objects in the distance appear blurred. It is thought to affect around聽one in three people in the UK聽and is聽becoming more common. While often treatable with glasses or even surgery, this can be costly.

The team studied data from聽107,442聽people within the聽UK Biobank study聽aged between聽40 and 69 years old. As part of the study everyone underwent a聽detailed eye exam聽and provided information about their聽history of vision problems. This extensive data was then used to聽study changing levels of short-sightedness聽in聽people born between 1939 and 1970.

The team found that聽20%聽of those born between聽1939 and 1944聽were short-sighted, whereas聽29%聽born between聽1965 and 1970聽were short-sighted.

As the large increase was seen in such a short period of time, the team believe that this聽must be due to environmental factors聽as genes do not change as quickly. They also noted that their data suggested this trend of increasing levels of short-sightedness began some time ago, and聽not just in the past decade.

The researchers also looked at demographic data like ethnicity and gender to try and find other contributors to this rising levels of short-sightedness. For instance, they noted there was an聽association between higher levels of education and short-sightedness, with the聽link becoming stronger over time.

Senior author Professor Jugnoo Rahi聽(果冻影院 Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, 果冻影院 Institute of Ophthalmology and Great Ormond Street Hospital) said: "There are lots of theories about what may be causing the increasing levels of short-sightedness, with a lot of interest in our changing 鈥榲iewing habits鈥�.鈥�

鈥淚n our lives we tend to do a lot more 鈥榥ear viewing鈥� particularly in education and our social lives. At the same time, we do less distance viewing (outside), especially as more and more people live in urban communities.鈥�

Professor Rahi also notes that we need to start looking at ways to聽slow the rate of short-sightedness聽as a population or we will have聽increasing numbers of people with high levels of short-sightedness聽(a prescription of greater than 鈥�5.0) which increases the chances of complications like blindness.

At the moment, there is聽not conclusive evidence聽that聽changing our viewing habits, like聽increasing our outdoor viewing, will combat this rise. However,聽spending more time outdoors,聽and therefore increasing our long-distance viewing, has other聽well-established mental and physical benefits.

There are also聽ongoing large-scale trials聽to understand how interventions such as eye drops, or certain lenses may impact the progression of short-sightedness

Professor Rahi added: 鈥淭he causes of short-sightedness are complex with both genes and environment contributing. As societies evolve, the changing environment mean that the balance and relative importance of each may be changing.

"Our team has shown here that there is a聽clear rise in the rates of short-sightedness, likely due to聽changing environmental factors聽and we now need to understand how we can slow these rises."

Links

• Population, Policy and Practice Research and Teaching Department, 果冻影院 Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health
• 果冻影院 Institute of Ophthalmology

Source

Image

• Credit: dusanpetkovic on iStock

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Chris Lane

Tel: +44 (0)20 7679 9222

Email: chris.lane [at] ucl.ac.uk