A growing number of children and young adults are suffering from glaucoma, a major cause of blindness, probably caused by excessive use of digital devices, an ophthalmologist said yesterday.
Tri-Service General Hospital’s Ophthalmology Department Director Lu Da-wen (呂大文) said National Health Insurance (NHI) statistics show that 310,000 Taiwanese are affected by glaucoma, a jump of nearly 70 percent from 187,000 cases recorded in 2004.
“About one in four of my glaucoma patients is under 49, and half of them were completely unaware that they had the illness until they were diagnosed,” Lu said.
More than 80 percent of high-school students are short-sighted and most young people use digital products a lot, Lu said.
“Short-sightedness and overuse of the eyes are risk factors for glaucoma, which explains why the number of glaucoma patients aged between 10 and 50 — the age group that uses digital devices most— has increased 70 percent,” Lu said, adding that cases of the disease in children under 10 have climbed by 20 percent.
Lu gave the example of an 11-year-old boy who had spent six hours per day after school using a tablet or a computer because his parents were too preoccupied taking care of their noodle restaurant to look after him.
“The boy already had myopia of minus-seven diopters [700°] when he was in the third grade of elementary school. His short-sightedness subsequently rose to minus-1,300° and because of overuse he developed glaucoma,” Lu said. “Even after corrective surgery, the child only managed to recover his vision to minus-400°.”
Lu said people with a family history of glaucoma are seven to nine times more likely to develop the disorder, adding that people in the high-risk group to undergo screening for the condition at least once every two to three years.
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