If things far away are looking a bit fuzzier these days, you’re not alone.
A new study indicates that nearsightedness is on the rise in the United States.
Using data from a wide-ranging health survey that rates vision among a set of respondents in the 1970s and then 30 years later, researchers have found that nearsightedness has increased.
The group compared eyesight information for more than 4,400 people tested in 1971 and 1972 with data from another set of 8,300 people tested from 1999 to 2004. The survey found that 25% of those who responded listed nearsightedness in the original survey as compared to 42% 30 years later.
Myopia severity also increased, with moderate nearsightedness doubling between the two time periods and severe cases, although uncommon, also rising sharply. Mild myopia cases increased slightly, from about 13 percent to 18 percent. This group included some people who did not need corrective lenses, says study coauthor Susan Vitale, an epidemiologist at the National Eye Institute in Bethesda, Md.
When analyzing the more recent eye-exam data, the scientists used only diagnoses that were made with the same technology used in the 1970s — mainly standard eye tests and trial lenses. Including diagnoses made with more advanced technology that has become available only recently might have biased the comparison, Vitale says.
The cause of nearsightedness is poorly understood. Past research has linked added risk to both a genetic predisposition to nearsightedness and to excessive amounts of near work, the kind of tasks that require peering at written words or small objects.
“Some people would say near work is a reasonable explanation,” Vitale says, particularly with the advent of video games and other electronic devices. Children also spend less time outdoors than they once did, she says. And some researchers contend that more outdoor time means seeing in better light, focusing farther.
“Past research has linked added risk to both a genetic predisposition to nearsightedness and to excessive amounts of near work, the kind of tasks that require peering at written words or small objects.”
that computer glare. AND because we’re humans, we’re able to culturally evolve the techology to overcome vision problems. If we weren’t the vision problems would have been breed out of us over time as an undesireable genetic trait.
As someone who suffers from nearsightedness, I can’t imagine how I would have survived 2000 years ago without glasses. I guess I would have been a carver.