The Chinese University on Monday said it has found that a type of low-concentration eye drops can prevent children from developing short-sightedness.

Researchers say they carried out a study between 2017 and 2022 involving 474 children aged between four and nine who did not have short-sightedness.

The team found a 46 percent reduction in the incidence of short-sightedness after the children were given the low-concentration 0.05 percent atropine eye drops for two years.

Dr Jason Yam said the eye problem should be prevented before it occurs if possible, because it is not reversible. 

“Because myopia is causing the eyeball [to get] longer and longer. When the eyeball gets longer, there’s a significant higher risk of having eyesight threatening diseases and these can cause future blindness, so preventing myopia is extremely important,” he said. 

Yam added that not all children are advised to use the atropine eye drops. 

“We advise only those high-risk children to consider using eye drops, meaning those whose parents are highly myopic… then parents can consider using the eye drops to help prevent myopia onset [in their children].”