Could there be a correlation?

[SpecialT]

I had a patient just recently that had been walking around as a 3 and a half diopter myope pretty much his whole life. His family had essentially chipped in to get him an eye exam and scrounged together enough cash to get a pair of glasses. It got me thinking about what people did before eyecare and spectacle correction became accessable to the general public. Then I thought about it more and started thinking about all of the technological advances made in the past 40 years. Now, more than ever there is virtually no instance in which a person living in america would be denied the ability to see clearly.

So what do you think? Could there be a very solid correlation with the advances and productivity we see in education, business and technology to our ability to provide effective refractive correction at an affordable price? Look at the trends and you see more and more transition out of manual labor and into the white collar lifestyle. Would this be possible without the advances in our industry? Without broader accessability to optical correction would upper class status only be available to those born with upper class means or those lucky enough to be born without a significant refractive error? I realize that on a percentage of the population basis that it is the minority that has the need for refractive correction, but the numbers of high hyperopes, myopes and astigmats is still substantial.

At first, I figured that this was just a crazy thought but thinking about the impact of what I am saying on an individual level I am not so sure it is all that crazy.

[Jacqui]

I think there is, we see it in groups of low-income and in developing countries.

[harry888]

Interesting thoughts..but consider Darwins natural selection.

High myopes many years ago would be run over by a chariot, or not be able to hunt food. That gene pool would have ended. Society now supports those that would have been culled by natural selection, they are breeding.

I'm forner military, refracted individuals around the world. The more educated/developed countries have more myopes. Rural/agricultural many more hyperopes. I even see that difference in the various communities here in the united states.
Harry

[QDO1]

seems to be an absoloutley good proposition


BTW I have the same RX as my father, my brother the same as my mother +- 0.25 and a few degrees on the axis

[chip anderson]

Actually there was once a French or Scandianian King who kept a colony of high myopes together so that they and their decedents would be available to make jewelry for the royal family.

Now if you were referring to refractive surgery in your post, we can't risk the vision of the actual working productive class. Only upper class who perform no actual work or productivity should be allowed to risk their eyesight. Keep the proles, proles.

Chip

[gola]

Interesting thoughts..but consider Darwins natural selection.

The more educated/developed countries have more myopes. Rural/agricultural many more hyperopes. I even see that difference in the various communities here in the united states.
Harry

This is true and we see it every day in our practice since i am living i Panama (Central America) where there is a lot of low income people. Things are worst when those hyperopes become presbyope.
Here the government does not provide eyeglasses.
You can buy everywhere for $4.00 already made eyeglasses with spherical prescription from 1.00 to 4.00 or go to a optical store a have custom made eyeglasses for $30.00 a single vision and $65.00 bifocals and some multifocals (frame, lenses and exam (refraction)). The minimun salary is $254.00 a month.
Thing are different here and everything is cheaper than in U.S.. For instance, an Oftalmologist will charge from $25 to $60.00 for an exam.

In the city, low income people can save to buy eyeglasses every 3 to 5 years. In rural places is small the percentage of people wearing eyeglasses. There is no money to buy them or they become used to see less that what they can. They are not used to wear eyeglasses.
I has been thinking too. This people living in rural places most of the time seems to be happier than us even thought they lack a lot of thing.
Their live is not so complicated. We have many thinks that do not really need and pay the price of being slave of a clock and have less time to be with our families.