Over 13 percent of the schoolgoing children in India have turned myopic, an AIIMS study has revealed, adding that the number has doubled in the last decade due to excess usage of electronic gadgets.
According to the Rajendra Prasad Center for Opthalmic Sciences at AIIMS, the statistics for the disorder a decade ago was only 7 percent. Among the other nations which follow the increase in the problem among its children are China, Singapore and Thailand.
Myopia, also known as near-sightedness and short-sightedness, is a condition of the eye where the light that comes in does not directly focus on the retina but in front of it, causing the image that one sees when looking at a distant object to be out of focus. It does not affect focus when looking at a close object.
"Very less studies have been done in India on the eye related problems and the myopia one is one of them. We are also conducting a national survey to find out the other eye related problems among the children," said Atul Kumar, head of the RP center, the apex eye center of India.
The announcements were part of the 49th Foundation Day of the R. P. Center for Opthalmologic Sciences, during which Kumar also announced several other new studies being carried out to figure out the existing eye related problems in the country.
Established in 1967, as the National Institute of Opthalmology, RP center currently has 41 faculty members working in its 14 clinical and para clinical sections.
Speaking about the center, Jeewan Singh Titiyal, opthalmology professor at AIIMS said: " Till now 1, 400 corneas were retrieved through voluntary eye donation and hospital cornea retrieval programme. Over 950 corneal transplant surgeries were performed at RP center since its establishment."