Dataset Information

Increasing Prevalence of Myopia in Europe and the Impact of Education.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

To investigate whether myopia is becoming more common across Europe and explore whether increasing education levels, an important environmental risk factor for myopia, might explain any temporal trend.

Design

Meta-analysis of population-based, cross-sectional studies from the European Eye Epidemiology (E(3)) Consortium.

Participants

The E(3) Consortium is a collaborative network of epidemiological studies of common eye diseases in adults across Europe. Refractive data were available for 61 946 participants from 15 population-based studies performed between 1990 and 2013; participants had a range of median ages from 44 to 78 years.

Methods

Noncycloplegic refraction, year of birth, and highest educational level achieved were obtained for all participants. Myopia was defined as a mean spherical equivalent ?-0.75 diopters. A random-effects meta-analysis of age-specific myopia prevalence was performed, with sequential analyses stratified by year of birth and highest level of educational attainment.

Main outcome measures

Variation in age-specific myopia prevalence for differing years of birth and educational level.

Results

There was a significant cohort effect for increasing myopia prevalence across more recent birth decades; age-standardized myopia prevalence increased from 17.8% (95% confidence interval [CI], 17.6-18.1) to 23.5% (95% CI, 23.2-23.7) in those born between 1910 and 1939 compared with 1940 and 1979 (P = 0.03). Education was significantly associated with myopia; for those completing primary, secondary, and higher education, the age-standardized prevalences were 25.4% (CI, 25.0-25.8), 29.1% (CI, 28.8-29.5), and 36.6% (CI, 36.1-37.2), respectively. Although more recent birth cohorts were more educated, this did not fully explain the cohort effect. Compared with the reference risk of participants born in the 1920s with only primary education, higher education or being born in the 1960s doubled the myopia prevalence ratio-2.43 (CI, 1.26-4.17) and 2.62 (CI, 1.31-5.00), respectively-whereas individuals born in the 1960s and completing higher education had approximately 4 times the reference risk: a prevalence ratio of 3.76 (CI, 2.21-6.57).

Conclusions

Myopia is becoming more common in Europe; although education levels have increased and are associated with myopia, higher education seems to be an additive rather than explanatory factor. Increasing levels of myopia carry significant clinical and economic implications, with more people at risk of the sight-threatening complications associated with high myopia.

SUBMITTER: Williams KM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4504030 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Increasing Prevalence of Myopia in Europe and the Impact of Education.

Williams Katie M KM Bertelsen Geir G Cumberland Phillippa P Wolfram Christian C Verhoeven Virginie J M VJ Anastasopoulos Eleftherios E Buitendijk Gabriëlle H S GH Cougnard-Grégoire Audrey A Creuzot-Garcher Catherine C Erke Maja Gran MG Hogg Ruth R Höhn René R Hysi Pirro P Khawaja Anthony P AP Korobelnik Jean-François JF Ried Janina J Vingerling Johannes R JR Bron Alain A Dartigues Jean-François JF Fletcher Astrid A Hofman Albert A Kuijpers Robert W A M RW Luben Robert N RN Oxele Konrad K Topouzis Fotis F von Hanno Therese T Mirshahi Alireza A Foster Paul J PJ van Duijn Cornelia M CM Pfeiffer Norbert N Delcourt Cécile C Klaver Caroline C W CC Rahi Jugnoo J Hammond Christopher J CJ

Ophthalmology 20150513 7

<h4>Purpose</h4>To investigate whether myopia is becoming more common across Europe and explore whether increasing education levels, an important environmental risk factor for myopia, might explain any temporal trend.<h4>Design</h4>Meta-analysis of population-based, cross-sectional studies from the European Eye Epidemiology (E(3)) Consortium.<h4>Participants</h4>The E(3) Consortium is a collaborative network of epidemiological studies of common eye diseases in adults across Europe. Refractive da ...[more]

PMID: 25983215

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Dataset Information

Increasing Prevalence of Myopia in Europe and the Impact of Education.

Purpose

Design

Participants

Methods

Main outcome measures

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Increasing Prevalence of Myopia in Europe and the Impact of Education.

Similar Datasets

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