Optical and pharmacological strategies of myopia control

Abstract

Recent increases in global myopia prevalence rates have raised significant concerns as myopia increases the lifelong risk of various sight‐threatening ocular conditions. This growing public health burden has generated significant research interests into understanding both its aetiology and developing effective methods to slow down or stop its development, methods collectively termed ‘myopia control’. The growing body of research has demonstrated benefits of various optical and pharmacological treatments resulting in myopia control management increasingly becoming a part of main stream clinical practice. This review will discuss the peer‐reviewed literature on the efficacy of various myopia control interventions including multifocal spectacles and contact lenses, orthokeratology and pharmaceutical eye drops, as well as potential future research directions.

Key words:

• contact lenses
• multifocal spectacles
• myopia control
• optical
• orthokeratology
• pharmacology

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author sincerely thanks Mr Andrew Nho and Dr Alex Hui for their assistance with writing this review. The author is a scientific consultant to CooperVision Inc, USA.