Study: Early intervention important to slow myopia progression
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A study spanning 6 years and involving more than 100 children showed that early myopia control efforts can consistently slow progression and that treatment effect can accumulate over the years.
Baskar Arumugam, PhD, FAAO, lead clinical scientist for CooperVision Inc., and colleagues shared these study results in a poster session during the virtual American Academy of Optometry meeting.
According to the study, the researchers evaluated the effect of age on myopia progression rates in children 8 to 12 years old wearing either dual-focus (MiSight, CooperVision) or single vision/control (Proclear 1 day) daily disposable contact lenses.
For the first 3 years of this prospective, randomized, controlled, double-masked, multicenter trial, 70 children wore the MiSight lenses, while 74 wore the control lens. Baseline myopia in these children ranged from -0.75 DS to -4.00 DS, and astigmatism was no more than -0.75 DC, according to the poster.
In the second 3 years of the study, children in the original control group (56 children) were refitted with the MiSight lenses, while children in the original treatment group (52 children) continued wearing MiSight lenses. The researchers reported that they measured cycloplegic spherical equivalent autorefraction and axial length at baseline and every 12 months through the 6 years.
Arumugam told Primary Care Optometry News in an interview, “Our study concludes that observed treatment effects in myopia management clinical trials may be dependent on the age of the subjects and study duration. Annual axial elongation rates were slowed by wearing MiSight 1 day during every year for ages 8 years to 14 years, and myopia progression significantly slowed for ages 8 years to 13 years.”
Arumugam said that these study results, “emphasize the importance of early intervention to slow pathological growth during years of more rapid progression. Early intervention also allows an accumulating management effect over more years, resulting in greater total outcomes.”
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Arumugam B, et al. The effects of age on myopia progression with dual-focus and single vision daily disposable contact lenses. Presented at American Academy of Optometry meeting; October 7-22, 2020; virtual meeting.
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