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What a glorious day it would have been for study-weary Chinese kids when the president himself stood up and declared the youth of his great nation should do less homework. Parents and principals be damned!

It was 2018, and Xi Jinping was rallying his people to arrest an urgent epidemic: myopia, or short-sightedness, in children.

Too much time inside scrutinising study notes was damaging young people’s vision.

Half of all people will be short-sighted by 2050, the World Health Organisation predicts.Credit:

Xi’s government released guidelines urging parents and schools to ensure children spent at least two hours a day outside and recommended that extracurricular study and homework be significantly slashed.

He was scrambling to tackle alarming figures. Some studies in China and other East Asian countries report 80 to 90 per cent of children have myopia by the time they graduate from high school and more than 10 per cent of cases are severe.

Although we don’t know exactly why, more time indoors is associated with a greater chance of becoming short-sighted. Once myopia sets in, treatments include exposure to red light and a poisonous-mushroom antidote.

So, as the World Health Organisation predicts half of us will have myopia by 2050 and Australian optometrists report a myopia epidemic, worsened by the COVID pandemic, what clear evidence is there on treatments that work and what elements remain blurry?

QOSHE - In some countries, four in five kids become short-sighted. How do we avoid the same fate? - Angus Dalton
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In some countries, four in five kids become short-sighted. How do we avoid the same fate?

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12.12.2023

Examine, a free weekly newsletter covering science with a sceptical, evidence-based eye, is sent every Tuesday. You’re reading an excerpt – sign up to get the whole newsletter in your inbox.

What a glorious day it would have been for study-weary Chinese kids when the president himself stood up and declared the youth of his great nation should do less homework. Parents and........

© The Sydney Morning Herald


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