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. 2024 May 21;108(6):879-883.
doi: 10.1136/bjo-2023-323688.

Prevalence of myopia among children and adolescents aged 6-16 during COVID-19 pandemic: a large-scale cross-sectional study in Tianjin, China

Tongtong Li  1   2 , Ruihua Wei  3 , Bei Du  3 , Qi Wu  1   2 , Jing Yan  1   2 , Xiangda Meng  2   4 , Yuanyuan Liu  2   4 , Qiang Yang  5 , Chea-Su Kee  6 , Guowei Huang  1   2 , Hua Yan  7   4   8
Affiliations

Prevalence of myopia among children and adolescents aged 6-16 during COVID-19 pandemic: a large-scale cross-sectional study in Tianjin, China

Tongtong Li et al. Br J Ophthalmol. .

Abstract

Purpose: This study aimed to determine the prevalence of myopia among children and adolescents aged 6-16 years during COVID-19 pandemic in Tianjin, China.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study using data from the Tianjin Child and Adolescent Research of Eye between March and June in 2021. A total of 909 835 children and adolescents aged 6-16 years from 1348 primary and secondary schools in Tianjin, China were recruited. Prevalence of myopia with 95% CIs was described in different regions, sexes and ages. The regions-standardised prevalence rate and chain growth rate of myopia in different ages were described the characteristics of myopia.

Results: A total of 864 828 participants (95.05% participation rate) were included in the analysis. The age range was 6-16 with a mean age of 11.50±2.79 years. The overall prevalence of myopia was 54.71% (95% CI 54.60% to 54.81%). The prevalence of myopia was 57.58% (95% CI 57.43% to 57.73%) for girls and 52.05% (95% CI 51.91% to 52.20%) for boys. Students living in the six central districts had the highest prevalence of moderate myopia (19.09% (95% CI 19.01% to 19.17%)) and high myopia (5.43% (95% CI 5.39% to 5.48%)). The regions-standardised prevalence of myopia was increased by age and the highest chain growth rate of myopia was up to 47.99% at 8 years.

Conclusions: The prevalence of myopia in Tianjin is high during COVID-19 pandemic. The progression of myopia started to increase dramatically at 8 years, and the increasing slowed down at 14 years. For policy-makers, intervention in the lower age groups may be important to control myopia progression.

Keywords: Vision.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow chart of participants recruitment.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The distribution of severity of myopia in the different regions (A) and the spatial distribution map of the prevalence of myopia (B) in Tianjin, China. Six central districts: Heping, Hebei, Hedong, Hexi, Hongqiao, Nankai; Four districts adjacent to the centre: Beichen, Dongli, Jinnan, Xiqing; Suburb: Baodi, Jinghai, Jizhou, Ninghe, Wuqing.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The distribution of severity of myopia in different sexes.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Prevalence of myopia in different ages.
Figure 5
Figure 5
The regions-standardised prevalence and chain growth rate of myopia in different ages (A). The regions-standardised prevalence and chain growth rate of myopia in different ages stratified by sex (B).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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