Soft Contact Lenses Do Not Lead to 'Myopic Creep' in Children, S...(is required. Myopia affects approxim...),Health

Myopia affects approximately 15 percent of children in the United States, but is much higher in some other countries such as Singapore and China. It typically develops around 8 years of age and worsens until age 15 or 16. A nearsighted child has difficulty seeing objects clearly at a distance, like a blackboard, but can see clearly up-close, such as when reading a book. Myopia can be corrected with glasses, contact lenses and refractive eye surgery.

Doctors will typically evaluate a child's maturity and level of parental support in deciding whether the child is ready for contact lenses.

About the 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(R) Brand Contact Lenses or ACUVUE(R) 2 Brand Contact Lenses, VISTAKON(R), Division of Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc.) for three years to compare the rate of myopic progression with each mode of correction over three years.

A total of 484 eight- to 11-year old myopic children participated in the randomized, single-masked, trial conducted from September 2003 to October 2007 at five clinical centers in the United States. Children were randomly assigned to wear spectacles (n = 237) or contact lenses (n = 247) for three years.

Among those who were assigned to wear contact lenses, 93.3 percent elected to wear 1-DAY ACUVUE(R) Brand Contact Lenses, a single use lens, rather than the other two-week modality. 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. Nearly all (467 - 96.5%) of the subjects were examined at the final visit. The spectacle wearers progressed -1.08 +/- 0.71 D, and the contact len
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