In conjunction with today’s start of 2020 Academy at Home, CooperVision is sharing details about several of its scientific papers and posters presented at the virtual meeting.
“If we were gathered in Nashville, thousands of eye care professionals, scientists, educators and students would have the chance to see and deliberate groundbreaking research from their peers face-to-face,” said Gary Orsborn, OD, Vice President of Global Professional, Medical & Clinical Affairs for CooperVision. “We applaud the American Academy of Optometry for bringing a similar experience online. The considerable clinical and lifestyle insights represented in recent CooperVision studies will deepen ECPs’ effectiveness and help improve the vision and lives of countless adults and children.”
The company’s supported research presented this week runs the gamut of often discussed topics in eye health and contact lenses today, including myopia management, comfort factors, transitions to the 1 day modality, and opportunities for category growth with new wearers.
Leading the Way in Myopia Management
While myopia continues to increase in severity and prevalence, advancements in myopia management are gaining greater adoption from ECPs and caregivers for children. As a global category leader, CooperVision is sharing new data and analysis as part of its ongoing commitment to research and education.
In one of the most anticipated paper sessions of the conference, CooperVision will for the first time reveal six-year data from its MiSight® 1 day contact lens clinical trial on Friday, October 9 at 8:45 pm EST. Paul Chamberlain, the company’s Director of Research Programs, plans to compare outcomes from two demographically matched groups of children. Findings suggest that while intervention at an early age is optimal with the specially designed lens, commencing treatment at an older age could similarly slow the rate of myopia progression. Additional details will be announced in conjunction with the paper presentation.
Patient age will be further explored in a poster session beginning today. Effects of Age on Myopia Progression with Dual-Focus and Single Vision Daily Disposable Contact Lenses (Arumugam et al., 2020) concludes that observed treatment effects in myopia management clinical trials may be dependent on the age of the subjects and study duration. Annual axial elongation rates were slowed by wearing MiSight® 1 day during every year for ages 8-14 and myopia progression significantly slowed for ages 8-13. These results emphasize the importance of early intervention to slow myopia progression during years of more rapid growth. Early intervention also allows an accumulating management effect over more years, resulting in greater total outcomes.
CooperVision MiSight® 1 day is the first and only soft contact lens the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved* for slowing the progression of myopia in children, who at initiation of treatment are 8-12 years of age.1 It is the centerpiece of the company’s Brilliant Futures™ Myopia Management Program, in which more than 1,000 U.S. ECPs are now certified.
Uncovering New Comfort Insights
Comfort has long been a focus on contact lens manufacturers, ECPs and patients alike, with substantial progress achieved through materials and design over the past several decades. Yet many aspects remain undiscovered—one reason that CooperVision continues to invest in researching the subject.
One outcome of this effort is the Time Course and Events Leading to Contact Lens Discontinuation (Basuthkar et al., 2020) study poster. In a survey of current soft contact lens wearers with a history of dropout, 70 percent reported having taken actions to deal with reasons for discontinuation, including discomfort, dryness and irritation. However, only 45 percent consulted their ECP and just 25 percent tried different contact lenses. The results support a need for more proactive clinical management to better manage contact lens symptomatology.
Another study, in collaboration with the Centre for Ocular Research & Education (CORE), investigates the linkages between subjective contact lens performance factors and overall satisfaction. Exploring the Factors Which Impact Overall Satisfaction with Contact Lenses (Guthrie et al., 2020) shows significant correlations for handling, vision and comfort, and overall comfort satisfaction was highly correlated with overall lens satisfaction. A separate analysis indicated that lower handling and comfort scores at insertion for the study’s hydrogel daily disposable lens drove a higher correlation compared to silicone hydrogel performance. This suggests that dissatisfaction with lens handling and comfort at insertion can play major roles in overall lens dissatisfaction.
Transitioning Frequent Replacement Wearers to 1 Day Contact Lenses
The trend toward increased prescribing of 1 day contact lenses continues, further encouraged by an increased focus on contact lens hygiene in recent months in line with pandemic-driven consumer sentiments. For ECPs currently fitting frequent replacement lenses while also considering ideal 1 day options, two posters provide additional assurances of patient acceptance.
A separate Academy-presented poster compares patients’ subjective experience and preferences after wearing monthly (Biofinity®) and 1 day (MyDay®) contact lenses. The products studied in Comparative Clinical Performance of Frequent Replacement and Daily Disposable Silicone Hydrogel Contact Lenses (Vega et al., 2020) use different silicone hydrogel materials yet share the same Aquaform® Technology to attract and bind water. Comparable performance across comfort, dryness, vision, handling, and overall satisfaction ratings should give ECPs greater confidence in transitioning patients from Biofinity® to MyDay®, plus all the benefits of 1 day wear.
For more than a decade, CooperVision has built a reputation for outstanding toric contact lens performance, spanning materials, modalities and brands. In Success Rates with a Toric Soft Contact Lens Design (Sulley et al., 2020), researchers analyzed data across 10 clinical studies to compare the company’s silicone hydrogel lenses with Optimized Toric Lens Geometry (OTLG). High overall fit acceptance and success rates—with predictable fit, orientation and performance across visits and visual acuity as good as spectacles—suggests an analogous experience for wearers moving between CooperVision OTLG lenses, further elevating ECP prescribing assuredness.
Increasing Quality of Life with Contact Lens Prescribing
Can a specially-designed contact lens improve quality of life compared to single-vision spectacles for people who regularly use digital devices? A paper developed in conjunction with Eurolens Research—Subjective Acceptance and Quality of Life with Users of Comfilcon A Silicone Hydrogel Soft Contact Lenses in a Multiple Aspheric Curve Lens Design (Smith et al., 2020)—will be presented on Friday, October 9 at 2:45 pm EST. It encapsulates a two-month open label, parallel group study of habitual spectacle wearers with no prior contact lens contact lens experience. Among the test group that was switched to Biofinity Energys® lenses, clinical performance and visual acuity were comparable to their spectacles. Quality of life scores (using a Quality of Life Impact of Refractive Correction questionnaire) for the contact lens group were significantly higher by the close of the study. This was primarily driven by improved performance for outdoor and fitness activities, as well as allowing use of non-prescription sunglasses.
Biofinity Energys® contact lenses are designed to help people’s seamlessly shift focus between digital devices and offline activities for a more comfortable lens-wearing experience.
The findings reinforce CooperVision’s new, downloadable guide for ECPs, Beyond Vision Correction: The Real Impact of Contact Lens Wear on Patients, which delves into the deeper, emotional benefits people gain from wearing contact lenses. Available at [INSERT URL], the report also offers multi-market data and straight forward advice for incorporating insights into practice, including making contact lens recommendations part of the daily routine and providing contact lens experiences to highlight the emotional benefits.
