Myopia - Prevention

Prevention

The National Institutes of Health says there is no known way of preventing myopia, and the use of glasses or contact lenses does not affect its progression There is no universally accepted method of preventing myopia; proposed procedures have not been studied for effectiveness.

Commonly attempted preventive methods include wearing reading glasses, eye drops and participating in more outdoor activities as described below. Some clinicians and researchers recommend plus power (convex) lenses in the form of reading glasses when engaged in close work or reading instead of using single focal concave lens glasses commonly prescribed. The reasoning behind a convex lens's possible effectiveness in preventing myopia is simple to understand: Convex lenses' refractive property of converging light are used in reading glasses to help reduce the accommodation needed when reading and doing close work. Although accommodation is irrelevant in Medina's quantitative model of myopia, it reaches the same conclusion. The model teaches a very simple method to prevent myopia.

For people with presbyopia, whose eyes' lenses can not accommodate enough for very near focus, reading glasses help converge the light before it enters the eye to complement the refractive power of the eye lens, so near objects focus clearly on the retina. By reducing the focusing effort needed (accommodation), reading glasses or convex lenses essentially relax the focusing ciliary muscles and may consequently reduce chances of developing myopia. Inexpensive nonprescription reading glasses are commonly sold in drug stores and dollar stores. Alternatively, reading glasses fitted by optometrists have a wider range of styles and lens choices.

A recent Malaysian study reported in New Scientist suggested undercorrection of myopia caused more rapid progression of myopia. However, the reliability of these data has been called into question. Many myopia treatment studies suffer from any of a number of design drawbacks: small numbers, lack of adequate control group, failure to mask examiners from knowledge of treatments used, etc.

Pirenzepine eyedrops had a limited effect on retarding myopic progression in a recent, placebo-controlled, double-blind, prospective-controlled study.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have found that a lack of outdoor play could be linked to myopia.