1 IN 3 Kids Worldwide Now Nearsighted

A new study shows one in three children worldwide are nearsighted, and that number is expected to rise. That's according to research published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology. Nearsightedness causes distant objects to appear blurry while closer objects appear clear. Researchers studied more than 5.4 million children and adolescents in 50 countries across six continents. They found that over the past 30 years, nearsightedness has increased among that age group from 24% to almost 36% with a notable spike after the pandemic. It's especially prevalent among east asian children, where children start their formal education at ages 2 or 3, exposing them to close-up reading and screens as toddlers. In Japan specifically, 86-percent of children are nearsighted.