The Situation of Myopia (Nearsightedness) in Taiwan

Have you ever tried to count how many people wear glasses in your class? Ten, twenty, or more over. The truth is the circulation of myopia in Taiwan at age 6-7 was 12%, 54% at age 11-12, 75% at age 14-15, and 85% at age 17-18(Chu, 1996). According to the Department of Health this number becomes higher and higher in these year, and they also found that in Taiwan the patient who got Myopia in their early age, in elementary school, then Myopia became worse and worse and turn into the big problem in their whole life(Department of Health,2002). The conventional reason to affect by Myopia is high quantity of school works, playing computer or watching television, and unhealthy hobbits.
Myopia, which is also called nearsightedness, is kind of condition cause by two major reason. First, the ciliary muscle which controls the iris could not contract as usual makes the image could not correctly focus on the retina (see Figure 1), and tense people could not see the things clearly. Second, the unusual long radius of eyeball let the image could not completely mapping on the retina. Excessive tired, to see or read things in a short distance for long time may cause these two factors and lead to Myopia.

Figure 1 normal Myopia
In Taiwan, there are three big contributors let to the high percentage of the Myopia. First, as Doctor Chen, a famous eye specialist, had mention the high quantity of school works, which force students to lean forward to the desk, in order to accommodate to reading things in the short distance for a long time, the children’s eyeball which is still in the development will extend the radius by it self. (Chen, 2006) This situation also keeps the ciliary muscle in the contract and could not relax, which obviously rise the probability to get Myopia. (Wu, 2004)
Second, playing computers or watching television is also a big reason to lead to Myopia. An new research publish on the Kaohsiung Medical Bulletin mention that these kind of attractive electrical appliances make children apt to using over time and hard to keep the proper distance.(Chen, 2007) When the children get closer and closer to the television or computer unconsciously, they will be more easier to affect the Myopia. This is also the big reason why Myopia is a kind of modern-disease, because the invention of the electrical appliances rise the percentage of Myopia.
The last reason was unhealthy hobbits, for example, reading in car or insufficient light, deficiency of sleep or using uncertain posture to read……. (Department of Health, 2007) These little bad hobbits may lead to the unusual over-used of your eyes and rob your eyes’ health for whole life.
In conclusion, now we know that the serious Myopia problem of children in Taiwan is caused by the high quantity of school work, spending too much time on television or computer, and bad hobbits. The eye’s problem seems small but when there are over eighty percent children suffer in this condition it became a big one. Therefore, I suggest our government should face this situation seriously, provide an action plan, and try their big effort to solve the Myopia problem in Taiwan.