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The Rate Of Nearsightedness Is Projected To Double Among Americans By 2050

By Bente Bouthier

Posted December 27, 2019

eye office

Connolly says a normal age for children to develop nearsighted vision is around 6 years old. (Zach Herndon, WFIU/WTIU News)

Children are in need of corrective lenses for nearsighted vision at earlier ages than they were 50 years ago.

By adulthood around a quarter of Americans are nearsighted, and that number is projected to double by 2050.

Katie Connolly is the Chief of Pediatric and Binocular Vision Service at IU’s School of Optometry. She says this increase is too dramatic to be explained by genetics alone.

“We have a lot higher digital device use than we used to and we have a lot higher rate of near work than we used to," she says. "So potentially focusing on something very small, up-close may increase the rate of near-sightedness as well.”

Treatments like preventative contact lenses and eye drops have been developed to slow the rate at which nearsightedness develops. 

Connolly says the increasingly early age development of nearsightedness is especially concerning because the eye condition gets worse over time. Which could mean increased risk of eye diseases like glaucoma, cataracts, and macular degeneration.

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