Wearing glasses proven to stabilize vision in kids with unilateral myopic anisometropia

Spectacle correction in children with unilateral myopic anisometropia (UMA) effectively slows the progression of myopia in the more nearsighted eye, preventing the condition from worsening and helping to balance vision between the 2 eyes, according to a study.

The study involved 153 children aged 8 to 12, divided into 2 groups: one that did not wear corrective glasses (UC group, 47 children) and another that did (SP group, 106 children). Over a year, researchers tracked changes in the spherical equivalent refraction (SER) and axial length (AL) of the children’s eyes.

In the UC group, the myopic eye’s refractive error and axial length increased significantly, leading to greater differences between the 2 eyes. In contrast, the SP group showed no significant change in anisometropia or axial length. When comparing the 2 groups, the UC group experienced faster elongation of the myopic eye’s axial length compared to the SP group, where spectacle correction slowed this progression. Children who began wearing glasses also showed a significant reduction in myopia progression in the affected eye after 6 months.

Reference
Wang S, Zhang B, Liu Q, et al. Spectacle correction may affect refractive progression in children with unilateral myopic anisometropia: A retrospective study. Ophthalmic Physiol Opt. 2024;doi: 10.1111/opo.13382. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 39193652.