If poor eyesight is found, get a dilated eye exam at a hospital, then go back for follow-up at the intervals the doctor gives
- Moderate value
- Evidence B
- Buys life
- For: Child aged 3–18
- Costs a little
- Takes minutes
- No willpower
In plain words
In a dilated eye exam (散瞳验光), an eye drop is put in first to relax the muscle inside the eye that does the focusing, and then the prescription is measured. It is done at a hospital and is the most accurate way to diagnose myopia. The National Health Commission (卫健委) states that the drops do not damage healthy eyes and that vision returns to normal after the drops wear off. Don't treat a single computerized test at an eyeglass shop as a diagnosis, and don't hold off on glasses for the child out of fear that the prescription will go up.
- Cost
-
A few dozen to a few hundred yuan for the exam and glasses. After the pupils are dilated, the child will be sensitive to light and see close things blurrily, which takes half a day to a day or two to wear off.
- What you get
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The Ten Core Messages on Preventing and Controlling Myopia in Children and Adolescents (《防控儿童青少年近视核心知识十条》) spell out what a dilated eye exam is. A cycloplegic is used first, and then the refraction is measured. A cycloplegic is an eye drop that relaxes the muscle inside the eye that does the focusing. A dilated eye exam is a medical refraction done at a hospital and is the “gold standard” for diagnosing myopia (the most accurate method). The dilating drugs do not damage healthy eyes; after use there may be a short period of sensitivity to light and blurry close vision, which returns to normal when the drug wears off. Once myopia is diagnosed, scientific intervention should start promptly, with correction by glasses and other means. Wearing suitable glasses can effectively correct blurry vision and slow the progress of myopia. For those who see normally with glasses, preschool and primary school children should be rechecked every 3 to 6 months, and middle and high school students every 6 to 12 months, with the decision on changing glasses made according to the situation. Children should have refraction screening (a check of prescription) regularly at ages 1 to 3, 4 to 6 and after 7, to monitor the hyperopic reserve (nationwide, issued July 2023).
- Notes
-
Graded B because this is the practice given in an official public-education document, not an original study with specific numbers. High myopia can lead to problems such as retinal detachment, so follow-up is not only about changing glasses. The “poor eyesight” found at a school checkup is only a first screening result; it still has to be taken to a hospital for a full eye exam, see §30.7.
- Evidence grade
- B : Supported by research but without a precise number, or based on small or single studies.
- Sources
-
- 国家卫生健康委办公厅 (2023). 防控儿童青少年近视核心知识十条（国卫办妇幼函〔2023〕278 号）. https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/202307/content_6894284.htm
Mentioned in
- Don't buy blue-light glasses to “protect your eyesight,” and don't believe that “a few months facing a screen ruins your eyes,” but treat swollen, painful, red eyes as an emergency
- Give no screens at ages 0 to 3, avoid them as far as possible at 3 to 6, and keep non-study use to no more than 1 hour a day for school-age children
- Treat myopia as damage that stays: the stronger the prescription, the more retinal detachment, macular disease and glaucoma later
- Read the report from the yearly school health checkup yourself, and take any abnormal item to a hospital the same year
- Don't buy products or services that claim to “cure myopia” or “reduce the prescription”
Translated from the Chinese original. Original book, section 30, tip 12. Content may be out of date and rules differ by place. When you actually deal with an agency, a doctor or a court, follow what local officials, doctors and lawyers tell you. Disclaimer