The role of environmental factors and hereditary predisposition in the causation of low myopia.

Various environmental factors have been implicated in the etiology of myopia. An attempt was made quantitatively to estimate some such environmental factors, as based on the presence or absence of a family history of myopia. Age range was 10-21 years. The 200 subjects included in the study were further divided according to emmetropia/myopia. The factors studied in the four subgroups were amount of near work done per day, head posture and illumination level while doing near work, acute fevers, chronic illness, acute or recurrent diarrhea, nutritional status, and income levels. A correlation was found between myopia and near work, head posture and income levels.