Myopia and level of education

PURPOSE. TO find out whether the development of myopia is related to the level of education. MATERIALS AND METHODS. From two big ophthalmic outpatient clinics in Jordan, 968 subjects (between the age of 24 and 45 years) were included in this study. A subject was considered myopic if at least one eye had a spherical equivalent refractive error of at least -0.75 diopter. The subjects were divided into two groups: the educated group was those who had finished at least 12 years of education and the non-educated which included those with maximum of six years of education. There were 468 men and 500 women. RESULTS. The frequency of myopia was higher in the educated group in both men and women. A significant relationship was found between the level of education and myopia in the whole study group (p<0.0001). CONCLUSIONS. This study had too few subjects to draw general conclusions, but within the study group there was a significant relationship between the level of education and the development of myopia.