Systematic review finds high prevalence of myopia among Malaysian adolescents
A systematic review and meta-analysis by Tan et al. synthesised evidence from 14 quality-assessed studies published between 1990 and 2024 to estimate the pooled prevalence of myopia among Malaysian children and adolescents aged 0 to 18 years.
Key Findings:
- This systematic review included 14 studies involving 13,367 children and adolescents across seven states in Malaysia.
- The pooled prevalence of myopia among children and adolescents was 17.18%. Prevalence was highest among Chinese ethnicity (44.62%), followed by Indian (17.55%), other ethnicities (17.40%), and Malays (12.64%).
- The prevalence of myopia was 42.71% among adolescents aged 13 to 18 years, 26.48% among children aged 7 to 12 years, and 2.54% among children aged 0 to 6 years.
- Females had 20% higher odds of having myopia than males.
Reference: Eudocia T, Yi S, Puneet A, T CL. Prevalence of Myopia in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review of Malaysian Prevalence Studies. Malaysian J Med Sci. 2026;33(3):14-26. doi:10.21315/mjms-08-2025-592
