Genes are main culprit in development of myopia, stud...( ded 366 eighth-grade children. The rese...)

ded 366 eighth-grade children. The researchers gathered information on the childrens current prescriptions for vision correction as well as the use of vision correction by each childs parents. They also collected scores from a basic reading and language skills test.

The researchers asked parents to record how much time their child spent doing a variety of activities in a week, such as studying, reading for pleasure, playing sports, watching TV and using a computer. They wanted to know how much these activities considered part of the childs environment contributed to myopia.

About one out of five children in the study had myopia, while nearly three-quarters of the children had normal vision. Less than 10 percent were farsighted. A third of the children with two myopic parents had myopia and nearly one out of five children with one myopic parent had myopia. Fewer than 10 children without myopic parents had myopia.

Myopia seems to follow a dose-dependent pattern, Mutti said. That is, the chance that a child will develop myopia greatly increases based on the number of myopic parents he has.

Even so, having two myopic parents doesnt guarantee that a child will develop myopia, he continued. While the chance of developing myopia does increase with the number of myopic parents a child has, its not a straightforward inheritance pattern.

The myopic children spent about two hours more per week studying a
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Contact: Donald Mutti
Mutti.2@osu.edu
614-297-7057
Ohio State University
14-Mar-2003

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