Vistakon "Myopia Control" study

Vistakon "Myopia Control" study

Soft Contact Lenses Do Not Increase Myopia Progression in Children, Study Shows

Soft contact lens wear does not accelerate the development of nearsightedness in children, per findings from a three-year study, the largest randomized trial of its kind, which were presented at the annual meeting of The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO).
According to the multi-site wearing trial study, which tracked the myopic progression of 484 children ages 8-11 randomly assigned to wear glasses or contact lenses, there is no clinically meaningful difference between the two forms of vision correction for the treatment of myopia. The new research further dispels a myth that soft contact lenses increase myopia progression more than other vision correction options.
"Children as young as eight years old who require vision correction are capable of contact lens wear and this study confirms that they can safely be fit in soft contact lenses to correct their myopia," says Jeffrey J. Walline, O.D., Ph.D., Ohio State University College of Optometry and leader of the Adolescent and Child Health Initiative to Encourage Vision Empowerment (ACHIEVE) Study.
The purpose of this part of the ACHIEVE study was to measure the refractive error, corneal curvature, and axial length of eight to 11 year old children randomly assigned to wear single vision glasses or soft contact lenses (1-Day Acuvue or Acuvue 2 brand contact lenses) for three years to compare the rate of myopic progression with each mode of correction. A total of 484 eight to 11-year old myopic children participated in the randomized, single-masked, trial conducted at five clinical centers in the United States.
At the conclusion of the study, nine in ten children (90.7 percent) originally assigned to wear contact lenses at the first visit were still wearing contact lenses. Measurements were conducted prior to randomization and annually. The spectacle wearers progressed -1.08 ± 0.71 D, and the contact lens wearers progressed -1.27 ± 0.72 D (analysis of covariance, p = 0.005); although this difference is statistically significant, the difference is less than can be clinically measured. The axial growth of the spectacle wearers was 0.59 ± 0.37 mm and 0.63 ± 0.34 mm for the contact lens wearers (analysis of covariance, p = 0.27). The change in the steep corneal meridian was 0.05 ± 0.69 D for the spectacle wearers and 0.10 ± 0.70 D for the contact lens wearers (analysis of covariance, p = 0.43). These differences were not statistically significant.
The study was supported by funding from Vistakon, Division of Johnson & Johnson Vision Care. Inc.