By 2050, 50% of the population will be short-sighted, this situation is largely due to the development of information technology, said the associate professor of the Department of Ophthalmology of the Faculty of Pediatrics of the Russian National Research Medical University named after Pirogov of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, curator of the interprofessional alliance for the protection of eyes "Gates of the Sun" Tatyana Pavlova.
The expert said that the number of people suffering from myopia (myopia) is increasing from year to year, so in Russia over 10 years among children and adolescents the number of cases of myopia has increased by 1.5 times.
“The forecasts of world statistics indicate that by 2050 50% of the population will be myopic, 10% will have a high degree of myopia and about one billion people will be blind,” she said at an international conference on the topic “Myopia under control. Russian and Foreign Experience ", which took place within the framework of the" Health of the Nation "forum.
She said that myopia is the most common visual defect that occurs in every 3-4 adults in Russia (about 40% of the country's population is myopic as of 2017).
Among schoolchildren of elementary grades, the frequency of myopia is 6-8%, in older students it increases to 25-30%. In gymnasiums and lyceums the figure reaches 50%.
The expert noted that the myopia epidemic is fueled by the development of information technology.
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