Wearing certain contact lenses could reduce by 50% worsening eyesight in children, suggests a new study.
Multifocal contact lenses, typically used by adults over the age of 40, were found to curb the advancement of myopia in children as young as seven—by nearly 50 percent.
There has been an increase in the condition of myopia among children, linked to surging screen time and shrinking outdoor time during early eye development.
Myopia, or nearsightedness, is linked to the onset of eye diseases in later life, but opticians have questioned prescribing contact lenses for young children given safety fears.
The study’s findings have helped to allay such concerns and the researchers now suggest that lenses could become a legitimate treatment option for mitigating myopia.
The condition occurs when a child’s developing eyes grow too long, from front to back. Instead of focusing images on the retina—the light-sensitive tissue in the back of the eye—images of distant objects are focused at a point in front of the retina.
As a result, people with myopia have good near vision but poor distance vision, the team explained.
Regular single vision prescription glasses and contact lenses are used to correct myopic vision, but fail to treat the underlying problem.
Hopeful Findings
The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that multifocal contact lenses correct myopic vision in children while simultaneously slowing myopia progression by slowing eye growth.
Study author Dr Jeffrey Walline, at the Ohio State University College of Optometry, said, “It is especially good news to know that children as young as seven achieved optimal visual acuity and got used to wearing multifocal lenses much the way they would a single vision contact lens.
“It’s not a problem to fit younger kids in contact lenses. It’s a safe practice.”
Dr David Berntsen, who led the study at the University of Houston, said multifocal lenses slowed myopia progression by about 43 percent over three years, compared with single vision lenses.
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He added, “Greater amounts of myopia and longer eyes are associated with increased prevalence of eye conditions that can lead to visual impairment.
“Our study shows that eye care practitioners should fit children with high-add power multifocal contact lenses in order to maximize myopia control and the slowing of eye growth.”
Myopia cases has surged over the past five decades. In 1971, a quarter of Americans were myopic, compared to a third in 2004.
There are currently no tests to identify which individuals with myopia will progress to high myopia, but the younger a child is affected, and left without intervention, the more opportunity their myopia has to progress.
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A follow-up study is now underway to see if the benefits remain when children stop wearing the lenses.
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