Expert consensus on stages of public health strategies for myopia prevention and control in children and adolescents

Abstract

Myopia has emerged as a public health issue with the increasing prevalence of myopia in children and adolescents in China. In the clinical diagnosis and treatment of myopia, there are clinical stages and classifications, but they are not suitable for the prevention and control of myopia at the public health level. At the public health level, because there is no staging standard for myopia, there is a lack of staging prevention and control guidance for different refractive errors. Therefore, the Public Health Ophthalmology Branch of the Chinese Preventive Medicine Association organized domestic experts in relevant fields to conduct literature searches and discuss based on the research data on myopia at home and abroad, put forward the stages of public health strategies for myopia prevention and control and corresponding group prevention and control measures for each stage to reached this experts consensus. This consensus first proposes a method for assessing myopia risk, in order to predict the occurrence and development of myopia in children and adolescents; From the perspective of public health, myopia prevention and control is further divided into four stages: myopia prodromal stage, myopia development stage, high myopia stage, and pathological myopia stage. According to this consensus, myopia prevention and control technology is targeted and implemented in different stages to provide guidance for myopia prevention and control from the perspective of public health.