At what age does short-sightedness stop getting worse?
There is no birthday on which a child's number stops climbing. Most levels off between the late teens and the twenties, and some do not. What the recent studies show, and how to use them.
- The American Academy of Ophthalmology says myopia usually appears at 8 to 12, worsens through the teens, and between 20 and 40 usually changes little. There is no single stopping age.
- A Singapore study followed 424 short-sighted people from their teens to ages 26 to 33: 82.3 percent stabilised (under 1.00 dioptre of change in 10 years), and 61.3 percent changed by under 0.50 dioptre. A minority kept progressing.
- A December 2025 analysis of 70,022 eyes found the gap between East Asian and Western centiles levelled off at about 16 to 18 years in girls, with less levelling in the more short-sighted centiles in boys. It describes groups, not one child.
- In Malaysia, a 2026 review found myopia in 2.54 percent of children aged 0 to 6, 26.48 percent aged 7 to 12 and 42.71 percent aged 13 to 18.
- Whether to start or stop myopia control is decided by how fast your child's eyes are measured to change, not by a birthday. No treatment can promise where the number will stop.
Every parent of a short-sighted child eventually asks it: when does this stop? Each new pair of glasses feels like a promise that the number will hold, and then the next check-up brings a stronger one. There is no single birthday when the number stops climbing, and this article explains why.
What the studies do give us is a pattern. For most people short-sightedness (myopia, rabun jauh) slows in the late teens and settles in the twenties. For a minority it keeps moving. Here is what the recent evidence says, and how to use it when deciding the next step.
At what age does short-sightedness stop getting worse?
For most people, somewhere between the late teens and the twenties, but there is no fixed age. The American Academy of Ophthalmology says myopia usually appears between the ages of 8 and 12 and worsens through the teenage years, and that between 20 and 40 there is usually little change.
The word to hold on to is "usually". Some level off earlier. Some keep changing into their twenties. Any single age you read online is an average, and no average tells you what your child's own eyes will do.
Why does it keep getting worse through the school years?
Because the eye is still growing. Myopia happens when the eyeball is longer from front to back than it should be, or the front surface is too curved, so distant things focus in front of the retina instead of on it. The AAO notes that it worsens in the teen years, when the body grows rapidly.
Think of a child's eye as a small balloon that is slowly being blown up during the school years. Once growth slows, the balloon stops changing size, and that is the plateau. Growth is why the age of onset matters so much. A child who becomes short-sighted at seven has many more growing years ahead than one who becomes short-sighted at fourteen. That is the idea behind checking earlier, and behind the article on pre-myopia, at risk but not short-sighted yet.
The Malaysian numbers show the same climb. A 2026 systematic review pooled 14 studies covering 13,367 children and adolescents across seven states. Myopia was found in 2.54 percent of children aged 0 to 6, 26.48 percent of those aged 7 to 12, and 42.71 percent of adolescents aged 13 to 18. Prevalence was higher in girls than boys, and highest in the Chinese population, at 44.62 percent. These are group figures, not a forecast for one child.
A screening of 459 Klang Valley schoolchildren aged 6 to 12, reported in The Star in August 2025, tells the same story on a smaller scale: 57.3 percent had a refractive error, of whom 33.6 percent were myopic, with the peak at age 9 reported as 44.7 percent. The reasons behind the rise are in why short-sightedness is rising.
What do the recent studies say about the late-teen plateau?
Two studies help, and they measure different things. A large pooled analysis published in December 2025 used 70,022 eyes from nine population studies, aged 6 to 20, to draw refractive centile curves. A centile curve shows where a child sits among children of the same age, the way a growth chart does for height.
It found that East Asian children were more short-sighted than Western children after age 8, and that the gap between them grew with age until levelling off at about 16 to 18 years in girls. In boys, the more short-sighted centiles showed less levelling off. That describes groups on a chart. It does not say every girl stops at 17, and the authors themselves conclude that curves need to be specific to age, sex and region.
The second study followed one group over time. Researchers in Singapore tracked 424 short-sighted people from adolescence (aged 12 to 19) to adulthood (aged 26 to 33). The average change was small, about 0.04 dioptres a year, and 82.3 percent had stabilised, meaning less than 1.00 dioptre of change over 10 years. A dioptre is the unit of lens strength, so 1.00 dioptre is a clear step up in glasses power.
Does short-sightedness always stop at 18?
No. Eighteen is a reasonable place for many young people to level off, but it is not a guarantee. In the Singapore group, 82.3 percent stabilised by the 1.00 dioptre measure, and only 61.3 percent stayed within 0.50 dioptre. So close to four in ten changed by half a dioptre or more over the decade.
The authors state that a proportion of short-sighted people continue to show a clinically significant degree of progression in adulthood. Males were about twice as likely to stabilise, and people who were not Chinese about two and a half times as likely, in that cohort. Those are odds within one Singaporean group and should not be read as a rule for your child.
Adult change is usually small, and for most people it is nothing to worry about. But a young adult whose glasses feel weaker every year deserves a proper measurement, not a shrug.
The practical message: do not assume the number stops on the day your child turns 18 or finishes school. Keep the regular checks going through the university years, and make sure the last prescription before adulthood is measured properly, with drops where the doctor advises them.
Can short-sightedness be reversed?
Not in the sense most parents hope for. Glasses and contact lenses correct what a child sees, and the treatments that exist aim to slow the growth of the eye, not to shorten an eye that has already grown. That question has its own section in why short-sightedness is rising, so it is kept short here.
If you meet a claim that exercises, supplements or a device will restore normal sight, or will guarantee that the number stops, ask which trial it comes from and who was in it. Our article on eye exercises and vision therapy sets out how to weigh that kind of claim. No treatment can promise where a particular child's number will end up.
Should we start, or stop, myopia control at a particular age?
Neither decision should be made by age alone. The international myopia guideline report describes management for the child who is at risk, the one who is stable, and the one who is progressing, with guidance for ongoing follow-up. The choice depends on how fast your child's eyes are actually changing, measured at regular visits.
That is why there is no birthday on which to stop drops or lenses. A doctor looks at the measurements over time, and at how your child is coping with the treatment, and decides whether to continue, change or stop. The options and their limits are in atropine drops for myopia and slowing myopia down.
What matters most is that the number does not climb high. The AAO warns that severe short-sightedness raises the risk of retinal detachment, glaucoma and cataracts, which is why we care about how far the number goes and not only how it feels in the glasses. See high myopia for what changes.
What about a parent's own short-sightedness?
It matters in two ways. The AAO lists a parent with myopia as a risk factor for a child, so a short-sighted mum or dad is a good reason to check a child's eyes early. And your own eyes, having settled in your twenties, still need a check every so often, because high myopia raises the risk of problems at the back of the eye in adults too.
Families often go for eye checks together. If you have never had a full examination with the pupils dilated, and you are strongly short-sighted, it is worth asking for one when you bring your child. Our page on eye checks for the whole family explains what this involves.
Your child's school-holiday appointment is a natural time to do all of it: measure the change since the last visit, settle the next pair of glasses, and decide what happens next based on numbers, not on age.
- The glasses seem weaker within a few months, or your child sits closer to the board or screen again.
- Your child squints, rubs the eyes or gets headaches after only a short spell of reading.
- Vision suddenly drops, or one eye becomes much worse than the other.
- A young adult in the family has a strong prescription and has never had a full dilated examination.
- Your child sees flashes of light, a new shower of floaters or a curtain over part of the vision: same-day care.
Common questions
At what age does myopia stop?
Does myopia stop at 18?
Does myopia ever stop?
At what age do you stop myopia control?
Can myopia be reversed in children?
Rabun jauh umur berapa akan berhenti?
How common is myopia in Malaysian children?
I am short-sighted. Will my child be too?
- Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science · Refractive error centile curves for Asian and Western children and adolescents: an individual level meta-analysis (2025) · pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- British Journal of Ophthalmology · Factors influencing myopia stabilisation in young myopic adult Singaporeans (2024) · pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science · IMI Clinical Management Guidelines Report (2019) · pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Malaysian Journal of Medical Sciences · Prevalence of myopia in children and adolescents: a systematic review of Malaysian prevalence studies (2026) · pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- American Academy of Ophthalmology · Nearsightedness (myopia) · www.aao.org
- The Star · Too many kids with eye problems (26 August 2025) · www.thestar.com.my