!! Save Gen Z from Marching Towards Blindness !!
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As a 16-year-old today, I can say I have worn glasses or contact lenses for nearly half my life!
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Living in a medically advanced city like New York, as a mere 10-year-old I had the honor to be on a clinical trial for an experimental eye drop for myopia (nearsightedness) correction called Atropine, which is currently awaiting FDA approval commercialization in the US.
My nearsightedness was discovered quickly at an annual pediatrician preventative care “well” visit even before any signs or symptoms impacted my day-to-day life. I got my first pair of glasses with a small prescription of -0.5D within 7 days of that pediatrician visit. For this alacrity, I thank my educated and proactive parents.
Speaking of my parents, let’s contrast my journey with my mother’s. Growing up in India, she was raised by loving, well-to-do parents, yet her advancing nearsightedness didn’t get diagnosed until her twenties when she moved to the US.
And by the time she had officially uncovered her myopia her prescription was -4.00D! She was inching closer and closer to -5.00D, a number known as “high-myopia” that most ophthalmologists fear is the first step to blindness.
Can you guess why in these two families of seemingly equivalent socioeconomic and education level, the outcomes were so different? Anyone?
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I attribute it squarely to the lack of preventative care childhood “well” visits in many parts of the world. As a kid, when my mom got sick, her parents rushed her to the pediatrician, there was no shortage of alacrity or education. But my grandpa said, “doctors are for sickness; what fool goes to the doctor when they’re well?” There was no such thing in India in the 1970s.
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Learning from these diametrically opposite set of life events has resulted in the conversation of eye health literacy always being front and center in my home.
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Today marks the start of my journey to bring that literacy from my kitchen table to yours!
Undiagnosed pediatric myopia is at an all time high in the US (ref. 1). Vision screenings at public elementary schools, while mandated, are often skipped (ref. 2). Not to mention, the COVID pandemic lockdowns saw us pivot completely to digital education. Even little kids work on their laptops, submitting classwork and homework electronically, and 8-year-old elementary school children are spending up to 6 hours per day of screen time doing “work.”(ref. 3) And if we add video games, Instagram, and TikTok to the mix, teens today spend 9-15 hours on a variety of electronic devices.
Mental health pundits say my generation (Gen Z) faces immense pressure. I say that first and foremost, it is our eyes that face immense pressure!
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Socioeconomic and ethnic disparities in access to annual vision screening, mounting electronic schoolwork, and the scourge of electronic media- do you “see” the problem?​​​​
Sources:
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Cao et al; PLoS One. 2022. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0268800
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Antonio-Aguirre et al; Opthalmol. 2024. DOI: 10.1016/j.ophtha.2023.12.005
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American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry https://www.aacap.org/AACAP/Families_and_Youth/Facts_for_Families/FFF-Guide/Children-And-Watching-TV-054.aspx