Census shows high prevalence of pediatric myopia in US
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DENVER — A study used census data to find a high prevalence of pediatric myopia in the United States, including a disparity between urban and rural children.
Patricia Fortin, MD, told Healio/OSN it is difficult to gauge the exact prevalence of myopia in the U.S., but she and colleagues believed that previous estimates of about 16 million did not seem high enough.
“With our experience seeing children in clinics, it just seems like almost every child has myopia these days,” she said at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology meeting.
Data from Kaiser Permanente Southern California pediatric eye exams were used to determine the rate of myopia of children aged between 5 and 17 years. Using an odds ratio of 2.61 between urban and rural environments and data from the 2020 U.S. census, the researchers estimated a total of 19,512,708 children with myopia and a nationwide prevalence of 36.1%.
In urban areas, the prevalence was 41%, while rural areas had a prevalence of 15.7%.
Fortin said these estimates show that there are 278 children with myopia for every eye care provider, a ratio that cannot be sustained with the current availability of providers.
“Some of us don’t even see children,” Fortin said. “It’s an untapped market for patients and for different ways to treat myopia.”
The disparity between rural and urban areas also shows the need for more awareness, Fortin said.
“The amount of difference between rural and urban populations is a huge difference. Around 80% of the U.S. is urban,” she said. “What can we do to try to bring whatever is working for these rural kids into the urban environment?”
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Fortin P, et al. The myopia management opportunity in the United States Census using the 2020 census. Presented at: Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology meeting; May 1-4, 2022; Denver.
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