Myopia Awareness Week
It’s #MyopiaAwarenessWeek
The eye health of our young matters more than ever before. Myopia, or short-sightedness, affects the young and is sharply rising in prevalence world-wide. In many East Asian countries, one in two children aged 10 years and above is myopic. By 2050, nearly half of the world’s population will be myopic.
COVID-19 has significantly raised the stakes and increased the COVID lockdowns caused a surge in near based activities and less time outdoors, resulting in a spike in prevalence, incidence (new cases of myopia) and progression of myopia.
This year, we’re making our eye moves and spreading the word about #myopia, so that parents and children can make healthy vision decisions. And we need your help, please share the word by sharing our page. #MyopiaAwarenessWeek #EyecareNJ
Why is myopia an issue?
Myopia is a significant issue. It can cause vision impairment and, whether corrected or uncorrected, has an influence on the quality of life and social domains of a young person. For example, when uncorrected, myopia can affect children’s scholastic performance. In some situations when corrected, attitudes to wearing thick spectacles can affect their psychological-social well-being.
Do the Myopia Move!
Doing these #myopia moves regularly will help keep your vision healthy, start challenging your distance focus by with these simple steps:
- Hold a finger as far away from you as possible.
- Focus on your finger and then shift your gaze away from the finger to look beyond and into the distance as far away as possible and hold your gaze for several seconds.
- Then shift back the focus to your finger and repeat the steps all over again.
- Look into the distance as far away as the eye can see.
- Trace a figure 8 on an area as far as your eye can see with your eyes for 30 seconds.
Take a break and have some fun!
Time Out: schedule some time off or take breaks from near based tasks such as playing video games, or hand held devices.
Get outdoors: get your child to play outdoors as a daily routine. Short walks, looking outside the window, anything that stretches the vision into the distance to help reduce #myopia risk. If your child is already myopic, talk to your eye care provider about how you can slow progression and get a myopia management program.
Make your eye moves! Get at least 2 hours a day outside, get your eyes checked and talk to your eye care provider about reducing your risk of myopia!
And most importantly, don’t forget to schedule your child’s eye exam and we can start taking the necessary steps in reducing myopia’s prevelance.
If you wish to know more about myopia, you can access the resources at Global Myopia Awareness Coalition (allaboutvision.com/gmac), International Myopia Institute (myopiainstitute.org) and BHVI’s Global Myopia Centre.