In adults of European ancestry, each additional year of university-level education is associated with an increase in the phenotypic expression of genetic predisposition to myopia for variants near GJD2, RBFOX1, LAMA2, KCNQ5, and LRRC4C, resulting in a refractive error shift of approximately 0.07 to 0.10 diopters per year of education.

Spending more years in school means more time looking at close objects and less time outdoors, which changes the light patterns hitting the back of the eye. This change makes certain inherited gene variants more active in disrupting how retinal cells communicate and how the eye's outer layer stays strong. As a result, the eye grows too long, causing light to focus in front of the retina instead of on it, leading to nearsightedness.