ZEISS Partners with Multiple Stakeholders to Release "Trend Report on Myopia Management Among Chinese Children and Adolescents 2021" and Advance a Clearer Future for Young Eyes

A child's eyes are the outward manifestation of their innocent souls, where we can always catch a glimpse of hope. Yet for many children, this window to explore the world is no longer as clear as it once was.

Surveys indicate that in 2018, the overall myopia prevalence among children and adolescents in China reached as high as 53.6%, meaning that one in every two children is myopic.

Such a high prevalence of myopia has drawn national attention, and within the "Healthy China" strategy, the prevention and control of myopia among children and adolescents has become a crucial component.

Despite joint efforts from multiple sectors, the overall myopia rate among children and adolescents in China in 2019 stood at 50.2%, representing a 3.4 percentage point decrease from 2018. However, the overall prevention and control situation remains severe. In response to the national call for myopia prevention and control, Carl Zeiss, Tencent, and the Shanghai Science and Technology News jointly compiled 《A Clear World for Children: 2021 Trend Report on Myopia Prevention and Control among Children and Adolescents in China》 (hereinafter referred to as 《Trend Report》).

June 6 is National Eye Care Day. To mark this occasion, the Shanghai Association for Science and Technology, Carl Zeiss, and Tencent jointly hosted the "Offline Launch Event for the 'Trend Report'" at the Shanghai Science Hall. The event aims to release a trend report on myopia prevention and control among Chinese children and adolescents, calling on all sectors of society to prioritize the issue of youth myopia. It seeks to optimize the structure of public science education content on myopia prevention, promote the further refinement of precision medical services in this field, provide the public with professional and practical behavioral guidance, reduce the myopia prevalence among Chinese children and adolescents, and improve the overall eye health status of the nation.

Report Release Ceremony

Currently, the myopia situation among Chinese youth exhibits three major trends: a decreasing age of onset, an accelerating progression rate, and a growing proportion of children with high myopia. For children, myopia is no longer as simple as merely "wearing an extra pair of glasses." The key to addressing this issue lies in establishing a scientific myopia prevention and control system.

《Trend Report》 uses data and case studies to describe the causes of myopia. The report notes that regarding outdoor activities, while many parents are aware that two hours of daily outdoor time can prevent myopia, in reality, the average daily duration of children's outdoor activities is approximately 1.27 hours.

Furthermore, the 《Trend Report》 also revealed that children's near-work duration at school alone reaches 8.49 hours per day. Only 28.5% of children take a visual break every half hour of near work, while 40% still engage in activities such as watching TV or using tablets during these rest intervals.

Additionally, factors such as the placement and intensity of light sources in the home can affect children's vision. Parents should properly position indoor lighting and avoid abrupt changes in brightness to support myopia prevention in children.

Once the root cause is identified, targeted interventions can be prescribed. This report launch event is precisely intended to discuss this "prescription" and bring it to the attention of more parents.

At the press conference, the Shanghai Association for Science and Technology, Carl Zeiss, Tencent, and several ophthalmology experts jointly released the 《Trend Report》. Dr. Zhou Xingtao, President of the Eye & ENT Hospital of Fudan University, provided an interpretation of the report. The report pointed out that as the primary responsible parties for myopia prevention and control in children and adolescents, parents still harbor many misconceptions regarding myopia prevention and control knowledge.

Survey findings indicate that 86.4% of parents believe myopia is preventable, yet 61.3% only learned of this after a physician informed them following their child's diagnosis. Their lack of clarity regarding specific preventive measures leads to a disconnect between awareness and actual behavior. Furthermore, parents have limited understanding of refractive surgery, mistakenly believing that myopia can be cured through corrective procedures once their children reach adulthood, while remaining unaware that the ocular damage caused by childhood myopia is irreversible.

During the post-conference roundtable discussion, experts pointed out that parents' insufficient awareness and incomplete understanding of myopia prevention and control constitute a major blind spot in current efforts. Many parents fail to grasp the principle that "myopia is preventable, controllable, irreversible, and incurable." They often lack preventive awareness prior to myopia onset, while harboring numerous misconceptions regarding myopia control and correction. Moving forward, it remains essential to continuously deliver structured, in-depth popular science content to minimize these blind spots. This approach aims to elevate parents' engagement from superficial concern to the practical application of scientifically sound prevention strategies, thereby truly achieving the objectives of myopia prevention and control.

While advocating for the optimization of the public health education framework for myopia prevention and control, experts also proposed promoting the standardization of vision screening and incorporating more objective indicators. This would reduce the rates of missed, inadequate, and inaccurate screenings, improve the efficiency of myopia prevention and control efforts, and take a vital step toward addressing vision issues in children and adolescents. Meanwhile, the establishment of a precision myopia prevention, control, and treatment system should be accelerated to enhance the quality of the complete clinical workflow, which encompasses examination, prescription and fitting, intervention, and follow-up, thereby ensuring that families requiring treatment receive more accurate and high-quality services.

“The release of this report enables all sectors of society to listen to patients’ voices and obtain authentic feedback. We hope that parents of children and adolescents will learn to discern the sources and accuracy of public health information, refrain from blind or biased acceptance, and scientifically prevent and control myopia. We also advocate for targeted public education on myopia prevention and control on a broader scale, and call upon all stakeholders to jointly establish a ‘prevention–control–treatment’ system for myopia, ensuring comprehensive eye health management across the full life cycle,” said Professor Zhou Xingtao. “Looking ahead, we hope that multiple parties will collaborate to refine and update the trend report, drive the continuous optimization of myopia prevention and control initiatives, and steadily enhance the eye health levels of children and adolescents in China.”

Ma Xingfa, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Vice Chairman of the Municipal Association for Science and Technology, stated, "On the occasion of the 26th National Eye Care Day, we hope that by hosting this event, we can further promote the scientific spirit, disseminate scientific knowledge, and guide adolescents to develop scientifically sound and healthy lifestyle habits. At the same time, we aim to strengthen the public's sense of responsibility and commitment to adolescent myopia prevention, foster a supportive social atmosphere that cares for and protects young people, and ensure that the world they see is brighter and clearer."

As the publisher of this report, Carl Zeiss has consistently closely monitored the severe situation regarding the onset and progression of myopia among children and adolescents in China, along with the associated risks of potential high myopia and fundus diseases. On the path to advancing myopia prevention and control initiatives for Chinese children and adolescents, Carl Zeiss has never ceased its efforts.

At the conference, Maximilian Foerst, President of Greater China at Carl Zeiss, stated: “We are honored to conduct an in-depth analysis of the current landscape of myopia prevention and control in China, providing insights and recommendations to all stakeholders. We are also delighted to see this initiative serve as a collaborative platform for eye care professionals, health educators, families, schools, and regulatory authorities to join forces in supporting myopia prevention and control among children and adolescents in China. Driven by a steadfast commitment to improving eye health and an active response to the ‘Healthy China 2030’ initiative, we are inspired to continuously innovate, exploring accessible, user-friendly tools and comprehensive solutions to further enhance our capacity for life-cycle eye health management. We believe that advancements in optical technology will benefit more people, empowering them to better enjoy life and look forward to the future.”

Zhang Meng, Vice President of Tencent Healthcare and a co-launcher, also stated: “Currently, parents at various stages of myopia prevention and control still have unmet needs regarding health education content. The prevention and control of myopia and the promotion of visual health among children and adolescents are key objectives of the Healthy China Action. Tencent aims to fully leverage its strengths in developing professional health education content and its cross-platform user reach to help establish a comprehensive knowledge dissemination system for myopia prevention and control. Looking ahead, we will further explore the application of artificial intelligence, big data analytics, and cloud computing technologies to develop targeted content frameworks. This will deliver myopia prevention and control knowledge in a more structured, tiered manner, enabling parents to access practical and personalized guidance, thereby effectively improving public eye health outcomes.”

“Give Children a Clear World” is not only a heartfelt aspiration from Carl Zeiss for children, but also an appeal to society as a whole. Myopia progression management is a complex and long-term process that requires the sustained involvement of governments, schools, professional institutions, and families.

Looking ahead, Carl Zeiss will continue to leverage its leading optical technology capabilities and comprehensive ophthalmic solutions, continuously optimize its myopia diagnosis and treatment product portfolio, and further enhance its integrated “hardware + software + service” solutions. By collaborating with all sectors of society, it will establish seamless synergy across homes and hospitals, online and offline platforms, and prevention and intervention strategies. This will drive the standardized, accessible, precise, digital, and intelligent advancement of myopia prevention and control efforts, ultimately building a premium, high-standard, and high-quality service system to support the realization of the Healthy China initiative.