An Israeli study found adolescents with myopia had a higher prevalence of anxiety and mood disorders compared to those without, with prevalence increasing with myopia severity.
Of the 891,501 adolescents (aged 16–20 years) included in the nationwide study, 279,419 (31.3%) had myopia, with 172,062 (19.3%) having mild symptoms, 85,310 (9.6%) having moderate symptoms, and 22,047 (2.5%) severe symptoms. Researchers found the adolescents with myopia scored 1.2% vs 0.9% non-myopes for anxiety, and 0.6% vs 0.4% for mood disorders. Prevalence increased with myopia severity: 1.1%, 1.3% and 1.6% for anxiety and 0.5%, 0.6% and 0.7% for mood disorders across mild, moderate and severe myopia, respectively.
The findings highlight the importance of early detection and suggest integrated psychological counselling could be beneficial as part of myopia management, authors noted, adding future research should focus on developing strategies to mitigate the mental burden of myopia among youth.
