Contact Lens Update

Current information and trends in Myopia Control

Download PDF Dr Paul Gifford consults with the contact lens industry on development of contact lens designs and their implementation into clinical practice. He is a partner in private practice conducting clinical research on use of contact lenses and orthokeratology to control progression of myopia, and holds an Adjunct Senior Lecturer position at the School of Optometry and Vision Science, University of New South Wales, Sydney. In the Treatise of Human Nature, published in 1739, David Hume observed that the more distant something is in time and space, the less we care about it. Although written in past times, the topic of myopia control taps into this interesting human paradox, as the failure to take effective action now does not present consequence until considerable time into the future. To investigate how sizeable this problem might become, researchers from the Brien Holden Vision Institute recently published a systematic review and meta-analysis on global prevalence of myopia and high myopia.1 Filtering through 4288 research articles on prevalence of refractive error or myopia the authors were left with 145 valid articles to form their analysis. Global prevalence of myopia was reported as 22.9% in 2000 rising to 28.3% in 2010. When projected forward to 2050 the authors predict that, at current trends, global prevalence of myopia will become 49.8%, with 9.8% of the global population being highly myopic (-6.00D or more). Even if we consider this data to be an over-estimate, it is safe to conclude that the prevalence of myopia is growing at an alarming rate. As … [ Read More ]