China Times (www.chinatimes.net.cn) reporter Chen Keyu Wenmei reported in Beijing
"The eyes are like a glass bottle, and the heart is full of autumn water", a pair of bright eyes can always arouse people's yearning for beauty. With the continuous "intrusion" of electronic products, people's eye health has been increasingly threatened. In the past 26th "National Eye Care Day", with the theme of "paying attention to universal eye health", more people were called on to love their eyes and "see" the sun.
On July 13, the National Health Commission held a press conference to introduce that in 2020, the overall myopia rate of children and adolescents in China will be 52.7%. Among them, 14.3% were 6-year-olds, 35.6% were primary school students, 71.1% were junior high school students and 80.5% were high school students.
Children's adolescence is a critical period for the formation of vision, and the problem of myopia and young age in China is still prominent, so many public welfare organizations strive to start eye protection from children and adolescents through various forms of public welfare activities.
On July 7th, with the strong support of the Malianwa Street Office of the People's Government of Haidian District, Beijing, the Pupil Love Rescue Center of the China Children's Mercy Association walked into the Xiaojiahe Branch of the Affiliated Primary School of Peking University and brought a lesson to the fourth-grade children: "Without glasses, what should the ancients do if they are short-sighted?" "Public welfare love lectures, from ancient times to the present, popular science about those things about "myopia".
"Through free medical screening, we found that many children in remote areas cannot be corrected in time after myopia. However, as China becomes the country with the largest number of myopia, the correction of adolescent vision cannot be delayed, and one of the most important ways to protect the eyes is to exercise outdoors for two hours a day. Yang Song, head of the Pupil Love Rescue Center of the China Children's Mercy Association, told the China Times reporter.
Eye care science popularization has entered the campus
"The ancients could eat more carrots to prevent myopia", "Reading a book for a while and then resting for a while can alleviate the fatigue of the eyes", "The ancients could take a tape recorder to record the book and listen to it..." "There was no electronic device in ancient times", and a burst of laughter broke out in the classroom. The fourth grade students of Xiaojiahe Branch of Peking University Affiliated Primary School are taking the "No Glasses, What Should I Do If the Ancients Were Short-Sighted?" In the public welfare class, the Pupil Love Rescue Center of the Chinese Children's Mercy Association invited the star Zhong Wenguan to come and teach.
As a new generation of actresses, Zhong Wenguan believes that vision is very important: "Good vision can help actors better understand the role. The more sensitive the eyes, the smoother the shooting will be. At the same time, Zhong Wenguan is also a "00" who grew up in the 2000s, she also experienced the process of being deprived of vision by electronic devices: "On a trip, I kept looking at a tablet on the road with my classmates, the road conditions were very bumpy, after staring at the screen for a long time, my eyes began to feel uncomfortable, and I was myopic shortly thereafter." It is based on her own experience that Zhong Wenguan hopes to be able to popularize the concept of protecting vision to young children as soon as possible to prevent problems before they occur.
In class, Zhong Wenguan also chatted with her classmates about the reasons why the ancients were less myopic. She told her classmates that there are many factors of the times. For example, in ancient China, reading was something that rich and noble people could do; in ancient times, there was no electric light, people did not read at night; ancient people wrote brush characters, the font was large, and the eyes were far away from the words; and there were not many tall buildings in ancient times, and the ancients could often look into the distance, which was beneficial to their vision.
After understanding the vision of the ancient people, Mao Xiaotong (pseudonym), a fourth-grade student, told the "China Times" reporter: "Although the rich and noble families in ancient times could let the book children read for them so as not to damage their eyesight, I did not want this." Listening to books does not learn very detailed knowledge, and reading books by myself can turn the knowledge over and over again, so I still have to protect my eyesight. ”
In view of how to protect their eyesight, the students also actively expressed their views. Some students said to look at more green plants, some students said to turn on the lights when writing homework, and some students said to do eye exercises often... The awareness of paying attention to the protection of vision took root in the hearts of the students along with the promotion of the public welfare classroom.
Zhong Wenguan said that taking the myopia of ancient people as the theme of lecturing was to get rid of the boredom of pure knowledge and awaken the students' awareness of the protection of vision in a new and interesting form. "For this class, I felt that I completely exceeded expectations, and the students were very thoughtful and active. And for me, as soon as they start to really value vision from the heart, my goal is achieved. ”
There is an imbalance between supply and demand in the vision protection market
However, behind this public welfare classroom, the visual condition of China's teenagers is still worrying. According to the results of the survey of adolescent myopia released by the National Health and Health Commission in 2018: in 2018, the overall myopia rate of children and adolescents in the country was 53.6%, of which 14.5% were 6-year-old children, 36% were primary school students, 71.6% were junior high school students, and 81% were high school students. This means that almost half of adolescents and children are in a state of myopia.
In this public welfare class, the reporter also observed that there have been many problems in the vision of children in the fourth grade class. There are not a few children wearing glasses, and even the number of children's glasses exceeds 400 degrees. The visual condition of adolescents and children is really worrying.
"Especially last year, during the severe epidemic period, most children were online classes at home, when teenagers spent a lot of time exposed to electronic products every day, and the Ministry of Education also launched a survey on the vision status of nine provinces, which showed that the incidence of poor vision among students during the epidemic increased from 59.2% to 70.6%." Yang Song, project leader of the Pupil Love Rescue Center of the Chinese Children's Mercy Association, said.
Founded in 2013, the Pupil Love Rescue Center provides free treatment for children with plight and amblyopia in China, and in 2017, it began to provide professional eye examination and optometry services for Chinese adolescents and children aged 0-18 who are in need of help, and provide effective personalized assistance programs. Yang Song said: "China from 'one of the big countries of myopia' to 'the first of the big countries of myopia', the children's eye vision status is indeed worthy of attention. Through this public welfare project, we carry out eye prevention publicity, free medical screening and treatment of children and young people, and we give free treatment to children from poor families. ”
For the phenomenon of the overall myopia rate of adolescents and children rising, Pan Meihua, an expert in myopia prevention and control at the Xiamen Eye Center affiliated to Xiamen University, once introduced in an interview that the burden of primary and secondary school students inside and outside the classroom has increased, the popularity of mobile phones, computers and other products with electronic screens, excessive use of the eyes, unhygienic use of the eyes, lack of physical exercise and outdoor activities and other factors will bring about myopia problems.
Myopia is not just a simple eye disease problem, but also a social problem such as living conditions. According to Yang Song, due to their wide field of vision and light reading tasks, the number of children suffering from myopia is indeed smaller. But other eye diseases in Tibet, such as strabismus and congenital cataracts, are more likely to occur. This is related to the fact that the ultraviolet radiation in Tibet is heavier and people are not conscious of wearing sunglasses.
In addition, in the screening of 20,000 rural primary school students in Gansu by the China Children's Mercy Association, 3%-4% of students with poor vision suffered from amblyopia and went undetected. The lack of professional optometrists or ophthalmologists in rural areas, the lack of quality assurance in private optical stores, and the serious imbalance between supply and demand in the vision protection market are important reasons for China to become a big country with myopia, and also the social reasons why the vision of adolescents and children cannot be protected in time.
"To change this situation, we should start from the popular science of the concept." Therefore, in 2020, the Chinese Children's Mercy Association launched the 'Seeing Program', joining hands with ophthalmologists and doctors to vigorously carry out myopia prevention and control activities into the campus. Yang Song told the "China Times" reporter. The public welfare sharing class at the Xiaojiahe Campus of peking university affiliated primary school is an important part of the concept of science popularization.
It is understood that on August 30, 2018, the Ministry of Education, the National Health Commission and other 8 departments jointly issued the "Implementation Plan for the Comprehensive Prevention and Control of Myopia in Children and Adolescents", and strive to achieve an annual reduction of more than 0.5 percentage points in the overall myopia rate of children and adolescents in the country by 2023 on the basis of 2018. In 2021, the Ministry of Education's task on the prevention and control of myopia in children and adolescents aims to reduce the overall myopia rate of children and adolescents in various places by more than 0.5 or 1 percentage point compared with 2020.