What do parents think about myopia control contact lenses?
In this article:
This 25-minute survey aimed to better understand parents familiarity with myopia and its management. It demonstrates that many parents believe that young children are not suitable for contact lenses. Parents value the importance of protecting their myopic children from future eye health problems which could be encouraging for ECPs.
Paper title: Global survey on parent awareness and attitudes to myopia and its management
Authors: Elizabeth Lumb, Claire Venezia, James Gardner, Aldo Zucaro, Anna Sulley
Date: 2021
Reference: Lumb E, Venexia C, Gardner J et al. Global survey on parent awareness and attitudes to myopia and its management. Contact Lens and Anterior Eye. 2021;44(1):13
Summary
This abstract of this study details a 25-minute online survey of parents of a myopic child between 6-15 years to better understand parents familiarity with myopia and its management. Significantly more parents in Hong Kong recalled advice from their eye care professional (ECP) to spend time outdoors whereas German parents were less likely to recall advice to reduce screen time than other countries. Parents from most countries appreciate the importance of ‘protection from future eye health problems’ along with ‘comfort’ and ‘ease of use.’ UK parents value affordability while German parents think it’s important to reduce how blurry their child’s eyes will be in the future.
Only 22% of parents would be comfortable having their child wear CL’s at age 8 (vs 50% of ECPs); this doubles to 43% at age 10 (vs 78% of ECP’s). This demonstrates that while ECP’s may be comfortable recommending CLs for young children, there is significant resistance among parents. Consequently, education, awareness and trust must be built and established between Eye care practitioners and parents to overcome this dichotomy. Overall, this demonstrates the importance of communicating and educating parents on myopia control contact lenses, and learning how to overcome barriers that may be faced by ECP’s when recommending these lenses.
What does this mean for my practice?
Eye care practitioners should be aware that while they may be comfortable fitting an 8-year-old child into myopia control contact lenses, a mere 1 in 5 parents (22%) would be comfortable with their 8-year-old child wearing contact lenses
What do we still need to learn?
This study highlights that we need to learn effective methods of communicating with and educating patients and their parents in order to overcome barriers in uptake of myopia control contact lenses.
Abstract
Title: Global survey on parent awareness and attitudes to myopia and its management
Authors: Elizabeth Lumb, Claire Venezia, James Gardner, Aldo Zucaro, Anna Sulley
Purpose: With increasing availability of myopia management (MM) interventions, awareness of myopia and its association with ocular health is limited among parents. This research sought to better understand parents’ familiarity with myopia and its management
Methods: A large-scale, 25-min online survey was conducted by an independent market research agency (Decision Analyst). Parents aged 30–55 with a myopic child between the ages of 6–15 were surveyed in UK, Canada, Hong Kong, Australia/New Zealand, Germany and Spain (August/September 2019). Statistical significance testing was performed at the 95% confidence level (p ≤ 0.05).
Results: A total of 1009 parents were surveyed across 6 countries. Parents in the UK, Canada, and Germany are less familiar with the term ‘myopia’ and recognise short sightedness (UK) or near sightedness (Canada/Germany). Significantly more parents in HK recalled advice from their eye care professional (ECP) to spend time outdoors compared to other countries (except for parents in Spain). German parents were significantly less likely to recall their ECP advising them to reduce screen time than other countries. When choosing a MM option parents from most countries see the importance of ‘protection from future eye health problems’ along with ‘comfort’ and ‘ease of use.’ UK also believe affordability is important and German parents think it’s important to reduce how blurry their child’s eyes will be in the future. 22% of parents globally would be comfortable putting their children at age 8 into contact lenses; this doubles to 43% at age 10.
Conclusions: This research demonstrates that communication with parents on myopia and its management using terminology that is easily understood is important. It also demonstrates that many parents believe that young children are not suitable for contact lenses. ECPs will need to overcome this belief to offer the full range of myopia management interventions available. Parents value the importance of protecting their myopic children from future eye health problems which could be encouraging for ECPs.
Meet the Authors:
About Clare Maher
Clare Maher is a clinical optometrist in Sydney, Australia, and a third year Doctor of Medicine student, with a keen interest in research analysis and scientific writing.
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