Diabetes can affect the eyes and vision in a number of ways. It may lead to frequent fluctuations in vision, cataract in young age, decreased vision due to involvement of optic nerve, temporary paralysis of the muscles controlling the movement of eyes and thus double vision.

People who have minus number glasses more than 6 diopter in power are said to have high or pathologic myopia. The glasses number of such patients may even be as high as 15 to 20 diopters. The eyeball in such cases is enlarged leading to thinned out coats of the eyeball so the central area may be very weak

For people who are nearsighted, certain refractive surgery techniques will reduce the curvature of a cornea that is too steep so that the eye's focusing power is lessened. Images that are focused in front of the retina, due to a longer eye or steep corneal curve, are pushed closer to or directly onto the retina following surgery.