This study was developed to explain the extraordinary rise in myopia prevalence beginning after 1950 in Indigenous Arctic communities considering recent findings about the risk factors for school myopia development. Myopia prevalence changed drastically from a historical low of less than 3% to more than 50% in new generations of young adults following the Second World War. At that time, this increase was attributed to concurrent alterations in the environment and way of life which occurred in an aggressive programme of de-culturalization and re-acculturation through residential school programmes that introduced mental, emotional and physical stressors. However, the predominant idea that myopia was genetic in nature won the discussion of the day, and research in the area of environmental changes was dismissed. There may have also been an association between myopia progression and the introduction of extreme mental, emotional and physical stressors at the time.

中文翻译：

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重新评估北极本土社区的历史近视流行病

考虑到最近关于学校近视发展的风险因素的发现，本研究旨在解释 1950 年后北极土著社区近视患病率的异常上升。第二次世界大战后，新一代年轻人的近视患病率从历史低点不到 3% 急剧变化到 50% 以上。当时，这种增长归因于环境和生活方式的同时改变，这些改变发生在通过引入精神、情绪和身体压力源的寄宿学校计划进行的去文化化和重新文化的激进计划中。然而，近视本质上是遗传的主要观点赢得了当天的讨论，环境变化领域的研究被驳回。