Angle J, Wissmann D A
Am J Epidemiol. 1980 Feb;111(2):220-8. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a112889.
Many people have reduced unaided vision because of myopia, a spherical error of refraction. The biological theory of myopia views myopia as the result of genetically determined characteristics of eye tissues, whereas the use-abuse theory views myopia as the result of habitual use of the eye at a near focal length, near-work. The use-abuse theory implies that myopia is preventable whereas the biological theory does not. Myopia varies over age, gender, race, ethnicity, level of education, social class and degree of urbanization. The explanation of the epidemiology of myopia in the use-abuse theory is that some types of people do more near-work than others. Using data from the Health Examination Survey of 12 to 17-year-olds conducted by the US Public Health Service from 1966--1970, this paper finds that the use-abuse theory can explain at least some of the variance of myopia and much of the socially patterned variance. This finding raises the possibility that at least some of the myopia extant in a population is preventable.
许多人由于近视（一种屈光性球镜误差）而视力下降。近视的生物学理论认为近视是眼部组织基因决定特征的结果，而用进废退理论则认为近视是在近焦距（近距离工作）下习惯性用眼的结果。用进废退理论意味着近视是可预防的，而生物学理论则不然。近视在年龄、性别、种族、民族、教育程度、社会阶层和城市化程度方面存在差异。用进废退理论对近视流行病学的解释是，某些类型的人比其他人从事更多的近距离工作。利用美国公共卫生服务部门在1966年至1970年对12至17岁青少年进行的健康检查调查数据，本文发现用进废退理论至少可以解释近视的部分差异以及大部分社会模式差异。这一发现增加了这样一种可能性，即人群中至少部分现存近视是可预防的。
