A new comprehensive study of eyesight around the world has found that 80 to 90 percent of secondary school graduates in East Asia suffer from nearsightedness, or myopia. The new study, published in the Lancet medical journal recently, found that neither genes nor increased time reading and writing were to blame for the worsening rate of poor eyesight. The real cause was more basic — lack of sunlight.
The worst eyesight was found in major East Asian cities in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and South Korea. The rates of myopia there were consistently 80 to 90 percent throughout East Asia, with 10 to 20 percent of those affected suffering from high myopia, a condition that can ultimately lead to severely impaired vision and blindness.
The study concluded that lack of exposure to bright light outdoors was the major cause of the problem. This large comparative study found that the rate of myopia in Britain was 30 to 40 percent and in Africa only 2 to 3 percent.