Changes in the prevalence of myopia in middle-aged caucasian Australians compared to UK biobank
Reviewed by Ivan Yip

This article compares rates of myopia and high myopia in large cohorts of caucasian Australians from the Busselton Healthy Ageing Study, the urban Gen1 of the Raine Study, the Blue Mountains Eye study and Melbourne Visual Impairment Project. The former two studies were carried out in the mid-late 2010s and the latter two in the early-mid 1990s. They compare these databases to the UK biobank from 2006-2010. The cohort compared are aged between 49-70 years of age. The main findings are rates of myopia are increasing within the younger range of the cohort. Australian rates of myopia and high myopia are lower than rates in the UK. Inferences regarding the cause of this are possibly reduced time spent outdoors and increased educational attainment in the younger cohort. Limitations included the progress of autorefractors, different cycloplegia protocols in the studies and regional differences across Australia which were not easily explained. Future directions suggested by the authors would be the inclusion of East Asian populations to estimate better the true burden of myopia and high myopia.

Change in the prevalence of myopia in Australian middle-aged adults across 20 years.
Mackey DA, Lingham G, Lee SS-Y, et al.
CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL OPHTHALMOLOGY
2021;49(9):1039-47.