Myopia Profile

Clinical

Eight Myopia Mysteries (plus eight more!)

Posted on December 1st 2018 by Kate Gifford

This continuing education article I authored was published in Australian professional journal Mivision in December 2018. It describes that while there's a lot we know about myopia control - the imperative to reduce lifelong risk of vision impairment; that numerous options are available; and that the sooner we start the better - it is imperative for the clinician to understand the difference between clinical observations and the evidence base.

The article is organized into eight 'myopia mysteries':

  1. What drives myopia development and progression? Is it actually about relative peripheral defocus or not?
  2. Do progressive and bifocal spectacles work?
  3. Is low dose atropine useful?
  4. Which add should you use in multifocal soft contact lenses?
  5. Are multifocal soft lenses better than OK for low myopes?
  6. Do smaller OK treatment zones give better myopia control?
  7. Could binocular vision influence contact lens efficacy?
  8. Does adding atropine increase efficacy?

The article groups common clinical treatments in an effort to explore what we do and don’t know regarding myopia control efficacy. It highlights the need to balance the available evidence with emerging knowledge when discussing options for myopia control with patients and their carers.

Published at a similar time, and a fantastic companion to this piece, is Noel Brennan and Xu Cheng's article in Eye and Contact Lens, entitled Commonly Held Beliefs About Myopia That Lack a Robust Evidence Base. Addressing 10 common misconceptions, two overlap with the above but a further eight include mythbusting undercorrection; consistency of percentage treatment effect; the effect of hand-held digital devices; that time outdoors slows myopia progression; the mechanism of outdoor time benefits; subclassifications of myopia and identifying pre-myopia.

June 2023 update: MiVision has archived this article making it no longer available.

Back to all articles

Enormous thanks to our visionary sponsors

Myopia Profile’s growth into a world leading platform has been made possible through the support of our visionary sponsors, who share our mission to improve children’s vision care worldwide. Click on their logos to learn about how these companies are innovating and developing resources with us to support you in managing your patients with myopia.