AIM: To estimate the pooled prevalence of myopia among primary school students in mainland China during 1980-2013. Myopia had become a growing public health issue, with high prevalence rates in mainland China, particularly among children. However, we still had no population-based nationwide studies of the prevalence of myopia among primary school students in recent years.

METHODS: Wanfang, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure and PubMed databases were searched independently until Dec. 31, 2013 to identify relevant articles. Data from the eligible articles were extracted by two reviewers. All of the data analyses were conducted using Meta-Analyst software(version 3.13, USA).

RESULTS: Thirty-seven eligible studies published between 1980 and 2013 were selected with a total of 245 248 individuals. The pooled prevalence of myopia among the included individuals was 26.5%(95% CI: 21.8%-31.7%). The prevalence of myopia increased with age(from 8.4% at 6-8y to 57.4% at 12-14y).

CONCLUSION: The pooled prevalence of myopia among primary school students in mainland China was much higher than that of western countries or regions. The prevalence of myopia increased with age among primary school students. This study should be valuable for myopia prevention and treatment in mainland China.