Ethnic Difference in Myopia between Asians and Non-Hispanic Whites in the United States – Corrected Proof
The excellent article by Wen et al supports what has been noted by ophthalmic epidemiologists, namely that myopia seems to much more prevalent in preschool children of Asian descendants (mainly Chinese) than non-Hispanic whites in the United States, with a 3-fold difference in prevalence (3.98% vs 1.20%). I feel this finding deserves further discussion. In the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis on middle-aged to elderly adults in the United States, the magnitude of difference in myopia prevalence between the 2 ethnic groups was much smaller (37.2% in Chinese and 31.0% in non-Hispanic whites).