A prescription for bifocals may help children with rapidly worsening nearsightedness in maintaining better vision.
A prescription for bifocals may help children with rapidly worsening nearsightedness in maintaining better vision.
Nearsightedness is particularly common among people of Asian descent, affecting up to 90 percent of some populations. Children with nearsightedness, or myopia, have trouble seeing objects clearly at a distance, and for some, the condition progresses quickly. The tendency toward rapid progression is believed to be inherited, and it has been unclear whether anything can be done to slow it. One potential tactic is to prescribe children bifocals - lenses that are split into two sections, with the upper half for distance vision and the lower half for near vision. But studies so far have yielded mixed results.
To determine whether bifocal spectacles could control myopia in children with high rates of myopic progression, researchers recruited 135 Chinese-Canadian children with rapidly progressing nearsightedness. The researchers randomly assigned the children to either keep wearing single-focus lenses or get a new prescription for bifocals; half of the latter group was given prism bifocals, which help the eyes work together.
It was found that over the next two years, children wearing either type of bifocal showed a moderately slower rate of nearsightedness progression. Nearsightedness is described in terms of diopters; at the start of the study, the children's nearsightedness averaged about -3.00 diopters, which is generally considered to be moderate myopia. All had been showing a rate of progression of at least -0.5 diopters in the year before the study. Over the two-year treatment period, children who stayed with single-focus lenses had an average rate of progression of -1.55 diopters. Those wearing bifocals or prism bifocals, meanwhile, fared better, with rates of progression of -0.96 and -0.7, respectively.
The benefits of bifocals in slowing myopia progression were modest and it remains to be seen whether the treatment effect lasts or tapers off.
Nearsightedness is particularly common among people of Asian descent, affecting up to 90 percent of some populations. Children with nearsightedness, or myopia, have trouble seeing objects clearly at a distance, and for some, the condition progresses quickly. The tendency toward rapid progression is believed to be inherited, and it has been unclear whether anything can be done to slow it. One potential tactic is to prescribe children bifocals - lenses that are split into two sections, with the upper half for distance vision and the lower half for near vision. But studies so far have yielded mixed results.
To determine whether bifocal spectacles could control myopia in children with high rates of myopic progression, researchers recruited 135 Chinese-Canadian children with rapidly progressing nearsightedness. The researchers randomly assigned the children to either keep wearing single-focus lenses or get a new prescription for bifocals; half of the latter group was given prism bifocals, which help the eyes work together.
It was found that over the next two years, children wearing either type of bifocal showed a moderately slower rate of nearsightedness progression. Nearsightedness is described in terms of diopters; at the start of the study, the children's nearsightedness averaged about -3.00 diopters, which is generally considered to be moderate myopia. All had been showing a rate of progression of at least -0.5 diopters in the year before the study. Over the two-year treatment period, children who stayed with single-focus lenses had an average rate of progression of -1.55 diopters. Those wearing bifocals or prism bifocals, meanwhile, fared better, with rates of progression of -0.96 and -0.7, respectively.
The benefits of bifocals in slowing myopia progression were modest and it remains to be seen whether the treatment effect lasts or tapers off.
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