Medical and social factors impact in myopia development

Aim. To elaborate a mathematical model of individual myopia development and progression risk in school students who study using innovative programs. Methods. 372 students of №19 gymnasium, Kazan, Russia, were examined. Students were divided into two groups: the first group - students with emmetropia (180 subjects) and the second group - students with myopia (192 subjects). Age distribution (junior students aged 7-9 years - 111 subjects, middle school students aged 12-14 years - 147 subjects, senior students aged 16-17 years - 114 subjects) was taken into account. Results. Factors influencing the visual acuity deterioration in school students were combined into five groups: medical and biological, social and hygienic, visual load, behavioral and alimentary. The visual load had the highest impact (52.8% - for male students, 51.7% - for female students), with behavioral factors on the second place (39.0% - for male students, 41.61% - for female students), alimentary factors on the third place (36.46 and 41.38% accordingly), medical and biological factors on the fourth place (24.80 and 29.09%) and with social and hygienic factors at the bottom (20.69 and 27.74%). Conclusion. The overall sum of the prognostic coefficients allows to define the risk of myopia on case-to-case basis and to distribute the student to a prognosis group. Basing on this approach. it is possible to develop personalized recommendations for myopia prevention targeting on the most important unfavorable prognostic factors.

risk factors, myopia, students, prognosis, prevention