Active children, adults favor ortho-K over spectacles for myopia correction
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Physically active adults and children preferred orthokeratology over spectacles for myopia management, although parents’ perception of corrective options differed from their children’s, according to data in Contact Lens and Anterior Eye.
“In adults, myopia has been shown to have a negative impact on [quality of life],” Lauren J. Lattery, OD, MS, of the University of Houston College of Optometry, and colleagues wrote. “Previous studies found that spectacles can have a negative impact on societal perceptions, social skills, self-esteem and personality. However, children who wore spectacles appeared to be more intelligent and honest to other children.”
Seeking to compare quality of life in adults and children with myopia who wore spectacles, soft contact lenses or ortho-K, Lattery and colleagues conducted a cross-sectional study of faculty, patients, staff and students from the University of Houston College of Optometry, as well as members of the surrounding community.
Researchers included 48 adults (aged 18-26 years) and 49 children (aged 9-17 years) who wore their correction for at least 3 years. Participants were grouped by wearers of spectacles, soft contact lenses (SCL) and ortho-K (OK), with 16 individuals in each group (children who wore SCL had 17 in their group).
The Pediatric Refractive Error Profile 2 survey was administered to all participants, as well as children’s parents, who were asked to complete the questionnaire as they thought their children would.
According to results, children wore their correction more days than the adults (P = .005), while adults, as expected, had a longer duration of their correction use than children (P < .001). Compared with SCL and spectacle wearers, OK wearing adults were more likely to wear lenses 7 days a week (P < .05). There were no differences reported within the groups of children in days per week of wear.
While all adults wore single vision SCL, OK wearers reused lenses, with 81% of adults and 69% of children reporting that they replaced lenses only when there was a problem, not annually (P < .05).
There was a significant difference in vision (P = .048), activities (P = .003) and overall subscales (P = .02) among adult groups, while only the activities score was significantly different among correction types in children (P < .001). Children who wore OK reported higher activity scores than those who wore SCL (P = .048) or spectacles (P < .001).
In adults, OK wearers reported higher satisfaction with vision (+23 point difference, P = .04), activities (+20 points, P = .002) and overall subscales (+20 points, P = .03) compared with spectacle wearers, with no difference reported between SCL and OK or spectacles. Conversely, children who wore OK or SCL were more satisfied with activities than spectacle wearers (OK vs. spectacles, +33 points, P < .001; SCL vs. spectacles, +19 points, P = .004).
Further, parents of children who wore SCL reported higher perceived quality of life with activities, handling, appearance and overall subscales than parents of children who wore spectacles. No differences were reported in these assessments between parents of SLC wearers and parents of OK wearers.
However, children who wore SCL or OK reported better quality of life with activities than their parents, and children who wore spectacles reported higher scores in handling and peer perception than their parents did.
“OK was believed to be best for activities by adults, children and parents, with children OK wearers reporting the highest scores,” Lattery and colleagues concluded. “Practitioners should discuss and consider fitting OK and SCL in activity-driven children and adults.”
They added: “While children were generally satisfied with any correction, parents were more positive about contact lens corrections over spectacles, especially OK. Practitioners should take into consideration that parent decision-making about a child’s correction type may be influenced based on their poor perception of spectacles.”
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