Survey takes a clear-eyed view
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Eye health experts calls China to raiwe awareness on the importance of optical health. [Photo/Agencies] |
A national survey was recently launched to evaluate the eye health of Chinese children and teenagers.
On June 6, China's annual National Day for Eye Care, the China Youth Development Service Center and Zhejiang Medicine, a leading listed Chinese pharmaceutical company, jointly announced the kickoff of the survey.
In about one month, a questionnaire compiled by top eye care medical experts in China will be distributed through multiple online partners, including Health.sohu.com, as well as through offline survey events held in universities, middle schools and primary schools across the country.
A report will be released based on the survey statistics and analysis, and most importantly, guidelines for parents and youth on how to care for the eyes and prevent myopia — a growing problem in China's digitized society, will also be attached on the report.
"Myopia is not only a disease that makes people see things blurrily, but also leads to severe complications, such as glaucoma (increased pressure within the eyeball), and can cause blindness," said Zhou Yuehua, an established eye care specialist with Beijing Tongren Hospital.
"It is very important for parents and children to know about the risk and care for their eyes."
There are about 450 million myopia patients in China. Among Chinese myopia patients, 30 million are severe patients, according to Zhou
The prevalence of myopia among high school and college students is more than 70 percent, and the situation is continuously worsening, he added.
Sun Zhu, director with the China Youth Development Service Center, said long hours of study, lack of exercise, especially outdoor activities, and attachment to electronic screen are some of the top reasons behind the widespread myopia problems, and the increase of younger patients, although China has made great progress in improving the hardware facilities and lighting conditions in schools.
He said he hopes the survey will alert people on the threatening situation, and also help medical experts to better guideline parents and children's behaviors to care for eyes, based on the timely and factual statistics the survey collected.
A series of follow-up events will also be held in six cities, including Jinan in Shandong province, and Changsha in Hunan province, to educate people on how to care for eyes after the survey started.
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