a young girl smiling.

If your child has myopia—also known as nearsightedness or shortsightedness—you are not alone. This condition is becoming more and more common. In fact, experts predict it will affect more than 50% of the world’s population by 2050.1 The good news is that there are now more ways parents can help.

Your Child's Distance Vision

The very first thing you can do to help is to know what to look for. Is your child struggling to see the board at school? Are things beginning to look blurrier at a distance? One cause for this blurry distance vision could be myopia.

Generally, myopia first occurs in school-age children and progresses until about age 20.2 According to the American Optometric Association, 34% of children ages 12-17 have myopia. This is due in part to changing lifestyles, with children spending less time outdoors.3,4,5

Is Myopia a Big Deal?

Since myopia makes faraway objects appear blurry, children may have more difficulty participating in sports, school, and other daily activities. But the immediate obstacles that myopia presents pale in comparison to the problems myopia can cause later in life.

Unfortunately, not all parents are familiar with myopia, let alone how serious it can be. A global survey6 shows that 26% of parents of children with myopia don’t know the term myopia. If you’re reading this, you won’t be one of them! Fortunately, once parents better understand the condition, they can arm themselves with knowledge about how crucial it is to act quickly.

The first step is to make an appointment with your eye care professional. You are not worrying needlessly. As children grow, so can the progression of their myopia, which can lead to future eye health problems. That’s why 82% of eye care professionals say they worry that pediatric patients will have significant eye health issues as they grow older.7 Even children with fairly low prescriptions have a higher risk of glaucoma and retinal detachment compared to non-myopic children, and that risk multiplies as prescriptions get stronger.8

What Can Be Done?

There are proven ways to slow the progression of myopia and you have the power to help. For example, there are many things you can do to help ensure myopia isn’t an obstacle in your child’s daily life – with both lifestyle choices and helpful products.

Eye care professionals often recommend spending time outdoors, reducing screen time, and using correction methods for myopia. The catch with this last intervention is that many products for myopia only correct vision— they don’t actually slow the progression of myopia.

Some myopia management products on the other hand are proven to slow the rate at which the condition progresses. Importantly, the sooner you take action the better because myopia progresses more quickly in younger children. That’s why 92% of eye care professionals agree it’s important to slow myopia progression at an early age — ideally, when children are under 10 years old.9 Just like you, they want to make a difference in kids’ eye health.

Myopia Management

As a parent, you look for a product that will fit seamlessly into your child’s life, and most eye care professionals agree that contact lenses are up to the task. Until now, traditional spectacles and contact lenses available in the U.S. have only been developed to correct blurred vision.  That’s all changed with the introduction of MiSight® 1 day. MiSight® 1 day is a contact lens that’s clinically proven to slow the progression of myopia in age-appropriate children.10 This daily wear, single use contact lens has been FDA-approved* to slow the progression of myopia when initially prescribed for children 8-12 years old at the initiation of treatment.11

Not surprisingly, 84% of eye care professionals would consider putting children with myopia into contact lenses that could help slow the progression of myopia.12 And on average, eye care professionals are comfortable fitting children as young as nine years old,13 which means you can confidently get your child the safe and reliable help they need as soon as possible.

If you’re wondering whether your young child has the skills needed to use contact lenses, you may be reassured to learn that 90% of age-appropriate children are able to apply and remove their MiSight® 1 day contact lenses on their own.† That being said, lenses should not be worn unsupervised. Furthermore, 90% of age-appropriate children say they prefer wearing MiSight® 1 day contact lenses over wearing spectacles.14

 

As reported by parents


*Indications for Use: MiSight® (omafilcon A) daily wear single use Soft Contact Lenses are indicated for the correction of myopic ametropia and for slowing the progression of myopia in children with non-diseased eyes, who at the initiation of treatment are 8-12 years of age and have a refraction of -0.75  to -4.00 diopters (spherical equivalent) with ≤ 0.75 diopters of astigmatism. The lens is to be discarded after each removal.1 Holden BA, Fricke TR, Wilson DA, et al. Global prevalence of myopia and high myopia and temporal trends from 2000 through 2050. Ophthalmology. 2016;123(5):1036-1042.

2 Yu L, et al. Epidemiology, genetics and treatments for myopia. Int J Ophthalmol. 2011;4(6):658-69.

3 Xiong S, Sankaridurg P, Naduvilath T, Zang J, Zou H, Zhu J, Lv M, He X, Xu X. Time spent in outdoor activities in relation to myopia prevention and control: a meta-analysis and systematic review. Acta Ophthalmol. 2017 Sep;95(6):551-566. doi: 10.1111/aos.13403. Epub 2017 Mar 2. PMID: 28251836; PMCID: PMC5599950.

4 Huang HM, Chang DS, Wu PC. The Association between Near Work Activities and Myopia in Children-A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. PLoS One. 2015 Oct 20;10(10):e0140419. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0140419. PMID: 26485393; PMCID: PMC4618477.

5 Lanca C, Saw SM. The association between digital screen time and myopia: A systematic review. Ophthalmic Physiol Opt. 2020 Mar;40(2):216-229. doi: 10.1111/opo.12657. Epub 2020 Jan 13. PMID: 31943280.

6 CVI data on file 2019. Global survey by Decision Analyst with 1,009 parents in UK, Canada, Germany, Spain, Hong Kong, Australia/NZ.

7 CVI data on file 2019. Global survey by Decision Analyst with 402 ECPs in UK, Canada, Germany, Spain, Hong Kong, Australia/NZ. 82% agreed on a 1-10 point scale (top 4-box).

8 Bourne RR, et al. Causes of vision loss worldwide, 1990-2010: a systemic analysis. Lancet Glob Health. 2013;1(6):e339-49. 

9 CVI data on file 2019. Global survey by Decision Analyst with 402 ECPs in UK, Canada, Germany, Spain, Hong Kong, Australia/NZ. 92% agreed on a 1-10 point scale (top 4-box); early age "from 6 to 10 years old".

10 Chamberlain P, et al. A 3-year Randomized Clinical Trial of MiSight Lenses for Myopia Control. Optom Vis Sci. 2019;96(8):556–567.

11 Chamberlain P, et al. A 3-year randomized clinical trial of MiSight® lenses for myopia control. Optom Vis Sci. 2019; 96(8):556?567.

12 CVI data on file 2019. Global survey by Decision Analyst with 511 ECPs in UK, Canada, Germany, Spain, Hong Kong, Australia/NZ. 

13 CVI data on file 2019. Global survey by Decision Analyst with 402 ECPs in UK, Canada, Germany, Spain, Hong Kong, Australia/NZ.

14 'How much do you like wearing your contact lenses?' 87/97 (90%) Top box 'I like contact lenses the best' Subjective response @60M] External facing reference: CVI data on file 2019

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