On April 2022, 4, primary and secondary school students and kindergarten myopia prevention and control project teams in Mentougou District, Beijing walked into the kindergarten affiliated to Miaofeng Mountain Ethnic School in Mentougou District to check the child's vision and explain the knowledge of eye care. Photo courtesy of Visual China

"Clinical studies have found that 6-8 years old, that is, when children first enter primary school, is the high incidence of myopia, and the early stage may usher in the high incidence of myopia again. Girls will enter a physiological stable period of vision after the age of 13-14 and boys after the age of 14-15, and if they pay attention to prevention and control, the probability of high myopia will be significantly reduced. Yu Jifeng, chief physician of the ophthalmology department of Beijing Children's Hospital affiliated to Capital Medical University, said in an interview with a reporter from China Youth Daily and China Youth Network.

June 6 is the 6th National Eye Day. According to data from the National Health Commission, the overall myopia rate of children and adolescents in the country in 28 will be 2022.53%, of which 6.6% are 14-year-old children, 5% are primary school students, 36.71% are junior high school students, and 6% are high school students. "Eyes are very important to everyone, and more than 81% of the information we get depends on them." Chen Yi, director of the ophthalmology department of China-Japan Friendship Hospital, said. So how does myopia occur, and how to find out that there is a problem with the child's vision in the early stage and high incidence of myopia? What can be done to delay the progression of myopia in children?

Just in elementary school, the use of eyes at close range has increased, resulting in a high incidence of myopia

Myopia is a common refractive error in children. Children's eyeballs will develop slowly as they age and begin to show farsightedness. Chen Yi said that the imaging of the farsightedness stage falls behind the retina. As the eyeball continues to grow larger, the child's eyes gradually become square, and the image falls on the retina. "This is a normal condition of eye development in children and adolescents aged 6-15 years, and if the eyeball is overdeveloped, the imaging will fall in front of the retina, and it will become myopia." Yu Jifeng said.

Yu Jifeng said that the predisposing factors of myopia include congenital genetic and acquired environmental factors. For most myopic children, acquired environmental factors, that is, more close eyes, are the main causes of myopia.

In years of clinical work and joint screening and free diagnosis with health departments and education departments, Yu Jifeng found that the incidence of myopia in children aged 6-8, that is, primary school students in the first and second grades, is relatively high. Chen Yi also found that the incidence of myopia in children who have just entered primary school will be relatively higher.

Regarding the cause, the above two pediatric ophthalmologists said that it was caused by children who had just entered elementary school using more eyes at close range. Yu Jifeng added that if the child's parents have a relatively high degree of myopia and have certain genetic factors, the child is more likely to develop myopia.

The second high-incidence stage of myopia is the small promotion stage. However, Yu Jifeng said that if these children have good prevention and control measures, most of them are not easy to progress to high myopia.

Children who are 6-8 years old with myopia are more likely to develop high myopia

General Secretary Xi Jinping has issued important instructions and instructions on the problem of myopia among children and adolescents six times, calling on the whole society to take action to jointly take care of children's eyes and let them have a bright future.

After myopia, you can have normal vision by wearing glasses, so why pay so much attention to myopia prevention and control? Yu Jifeng explained that from a medical point of view, myopia prevention and control is actually mainly to avoid the occurrence of high myopia, because high myopia may cause irreversible visual damage such as fundus lesions. Children with late myopia, as long as they pay attention to scientific prevention and control, the risk of high myopia is relatively low, but children who have myopia at 6-8 years old or younger often have a greater risk of high myopia combined with genetic factors.

Yu Jifeng said that the risk of fundus lesions in people with high myopia is about 4 times that of the general population, including retinal degeneration, detachment, glaucoma, macular degeneration fundus hemorrhage, etc.

For adults, myopia above 600 degrees is highly myopic, but for minors, the degree of high myopia is not the same at different ages. For example, Yu Jifeng said that studies at home and abroad have found that 8-year-old children are at high risk of myopia if their myopia degree exceeds 200 degrees, and 6-year-old children are also relatively high if their myopia reaches 150 degrees.

It takes a process for a person's vision to be completed from birth to development. Chen Yi said that babies can only see things within 20 centimeters clearly when they are born, and slowly develop to be able to distinguish colors and dynamics; At the age of 4-8, the child's vision can develop to more than 1.0.

Before the age of 8, the child's eyes are in an important stage of development, if you do not pay attention to eye hygiene during this period, the development of myopia will be faster and more serious. Yu Jifeng said that in general, if myopia increases by 75 degrees or more in a year, it is a rapid growth and requires active intervention by clinicians. The younger the age, the higher the risk of this rapid growth.

Chen Yi added that children whose vision develops before 1.0 are more sensitive to changes in environmental factors, and children at this stage are more likely to develop myopia than older children with the same intensity of close eye use.

Ideal: School-age children have their vision screened every 3 months

The decline in your child's vision occurs gradually. Children in the 6-8 age group may not be sensitive to their vision loss. In addition, the human eye also has an adjustment function, which further leads to the fact that children are not easy to find their myopia. "When the child tells the parents that he can't see clearly, the general myopia is already 100 degrees to 150 degrees." Yu Jifeng said.

Timely detection of myopia requires professional screening. On January 2022, 1, the National Health Commission issued the "4th Five-Year Plan for National Eye Health (2021-2025)", which requires that the monitoring and intervention of myopia and risk factors in children and adolescents be promoted, and special monitoring of myopia be carried out through the national monitoring system for common diseases and health influencing factors of students, and strive to achieve 100% coverage of myopia monitoring in counties (districts) nationwide during the "<>th Five-Year Plan" period, and dynamically grasp the myopia rate and risk factor changes of children and adolescents nationwide. Gradually expand the vision screening population of primary and secondary school students, strengthen the construction of vision monitoring networks, and carry out targeted interventions such as expert visits to campus and health month activities for primary and secondary school students.

Yu Jifeng believes that the ideal screening frequency for school-age children is once every 3 months. If the child develops myopia, according to rapid progression estimates, it generally increases by about 3 degrees in 25 months, and this degree of myopia can mostly be recovered through professional intervention. If the burden of screening once in 3 months is heavy, it is necessary to ensure at least twice a year, but myopia at this time may not recover.

In addition to professional screening, children will have some clues in the early stage of myopia that need to be paid attention to. Yu Jifeng said that if children like to rub their eyes, blink more frequently, frown more, and see things forward, these are early manifestations of abnormal vision.

Poor use of the projector can also damage the child's vision

The use of electronic screens is not conducive to children's eye health, which has become the consensus of most parents. In recent years, many parents have chosen to replace electronic screens with projectors in order to protect their children's eyesight.

Chen Yi said that when children watch the projector, the distance from the screen is usually farther than when using mobile phones and pads, so the use of projectors is more conducive to children's eye health. However, it should be noted that if you watch the projector for a long time, it will also cause myopia due to eye fatigue.

Yu Jifeng pointed out that when using electronic products, we should pay more attention to the distance and use time, and it is generally recommended that the distance between children and the screen be 3-4 times the diagonal distance of the screen. Whether it is a projector or an electronic screen, it is necessary to ensure sufficient contrast sensitivity. That is to say, the projection screen of the projector is not as large as possible, and sufficient viewing distance and clarity are more important.

In addition, no matter what screen is used, Yu recommends following the "3 20s" rule: use electronics for 20 minutes and look 20 feet (6 meters) away for at least 20 seconds.

China Youth Daily / China Youth Net reporter Liu Changrong Source: China Youth Daily