This condition, which describes difficulty seeing objects at a distance, usually begins in early childhood and tends to worsen with age.

It has become a major public health problem, particularly in Southeast Asia, the authors explain, and who are researchers at Sun Yat-sen University (China).

The most recent global review of its prevalence only went as far back as 2015. To obtain a more up-to-date picture, with a view to improving health policy and preventive efforts, the Chinese scientists calculated the current and future prevalence of myopia up to 2050 among young people aged five to 19 years.

To arrive at these results, the researchers relied on all relevant articles and government reports published up to June 2023, or a total of 276 studies, involving five million, 410,945 children and adolescents and 1,969,090 cases of myopia, from 50 countries in Asia, Europe, Africa, Oceania, North America and Latin America.

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