Abstract
Purpose:
To perform a meta-analysis to estimate the prevalence of myopia in Asia.
Methods:
We searched PubMed, Embase and Web of Science from their inception till September 2013 for population-based surveys reporting the prevalence of myopia in adults or children in Asia. We pooled the prevalence estimates for myopia using a random effects model.
Results:
We identified 49 eligible population-based studies including 210,512 individuals aged 0 to 96 years reporting the prevalence of myopia from 16 Asian countries or regions. The pooled prevalence estimate of myopia was highest at 47.3% (95% confidence interval [CI], 19.3, 75.2) in Asians aged 20 to 29 years. There was a U-shaped relationship between year of birth and myopia prevalence. The cohort effect especially marked in urban Asian communities such as Singapore and South Korea. The prevalence of myopia of 36.3% (95%CI 27.6, 45.0) was higher in adults aged more than 70 years compared with middle-aged adults, which revealed nuclear cataract-myopia shifts.
Conclusions:
There are large variations in the prevalence of myopia in Asia. Overall, the prevalence of myopia in middle-aged to elderly adults is similar in Asians compared with Western populations. However, myopia is more prevalent in younger generations living in urbanized Asian societies compared with their counterparts in Western communities, suggesting that the epidemic of myopia in Asia may be a recent generational phenomenon.
Keywords: 605 myopia •
463 clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: prevalence/incidence •
677 refractive error development