New specially designed silicone hydrogel contact lenses may slow the progression of myopia in pre-teen and teenage children.

That’s the conclusion of researchers from Australia, China and the United States, who presented the findings of a new study at the recent annual meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO).

The researchers compared the progression of myopia among Chinese schoolchildren for a period of 6 months. All children in the study were between the ages of 7 and 14 at the beginning of the study period, and had –0.75 to –3.50 diopters (D) of myopia with no more than 0.50 D of astigmatism.  A total of 65 children wore the experimental contacts, and 50 children wore eyeglasses.

The contact lenses were designed to fully correct the wearers’ central vision and reduce the relative peripheral hyperopia produced by conventional corrective lenses, which some researchers feel may be a cause of myopia progression.

At the end of the 6-month study period, the children wearing the experimental contact lenses had 54 percent less progression of their myopia than the children wearing eyeglasses.

The researchers said the study results are promising with regard to the development of a new generation of contact lenses aimed at myopia control, but additional study of the contacts over longer periods of time is needed to fully judge their effectiveness.

Most children ages 8 to 11 years can successfully wear contact lenses, according to a new study.

Researchers at The Ohio State University College of Optometry evaluated the contact lens wear of 116 children ranging in age from 8 to 11 years who participated in the Contact Lenses and Myopia Progression Study. Most children in the study remained in their original treatment group (wearing either gas permeable contact lenses or soft contacts) for a period of 3 years.

Visual acuity was measured at several follow-up visits throughout the study, and all children completed a questionnaire at each visit to assess several aspects of their contact lens wear, including contact lens discomfort.

Also, children who switched from wearing gas permeable (GP) contacts to wearing soft contact lenses were compared with children who continued to wear GP lenses to determine factors related to dissatisfaction with gas permeable contact lens wear.

Results of the study included:

• 70 percent of GP wearers and 93 percent of soft contact lens wearers wore their assigned lenses to every follow-up visit.
• Children wearing gas permeable lenses wore their lenses significantly fewer hours per week than children wearing soft lenses (mean of 76.2 hours vs. 86.8 hours).
• Children wearing GP lenses demonstrated better visual acuity than the children who wore soft lenses, but though the difference was statistically significant, it was not clinically meaningful.
• More children wearing GP lenses had discomfort complaints than children wearing soft lenses.

Significant factors causing some children to cross over from wearing gas permeable contact to wearing soft lenses were lower wearing times due to discomfort and an “itchy” sensation when wearing GP lenses.

The authors of the study concluded that pre-teen children are able to successfully wear GP and soft contact lenses, though long-term adaptation occurred more frequently when the children were fitted with soft contact lenses.

An abstract of the study was published online on April 8, ahead of publication in a future issue of Optometry & Vision Science, the official journal of the American Academy of Optometry.

“Can my child successfully wear contact lenses?”

It’s a question many parents ask their eye doctor when their kids want contacts. In this month’s Contact Lens Spectrum, Jeffrey Walline, OD, PhD, and Marjorie Rah, OD, PhD, discuss some of the factors associated with the success (or lack of success) children have when attempting to wear contact lenses.

Recent research suggests that more than 90 percent of children ages 8 to 14 can successfully adapt to wearing soft contact lenses. Because of this high success rate, most children who are interested in contact lenses choose soft lenses.

With gas permeable contact lenses (also called GP contacts), it’s a different story. The success rate fitting children with GP lenses is approximately 55 percent. For this reason, Drs. Walline and Rah say more careful screening of candidates for these lenses may be beneficial.

In a study published in 2009, Dr. Walline found that most children who were unable to adapt to contact lens wear tend to stop wearing the lenses within the first few weeks. But is was unclear to the researchers if these children simply chose not to wear the GP lenses frequently enough and long enough to adapt to them, or if contact lens discomfort or other factors made adapting to the lenses impossible, and this was the reason they wore the lenses less than those who were successful.

From their personal experience fitting children with contacts, the authors have found that children who are squeamish about having their eyes or eyelids touched by their doctor during an eye exam are less likely to succeed with contact lens wear. Children with small eye openings, poor dexterity or poor hygiene also are less likely to wear contacts successfully.

Parents also are a factor in a child’s success wearing contacts, according to the doctors. Parents who are involved without being overbearing offer the best support environment for their kids to wear contacts successfully, they say.

Dr. Walline is an assistant professor at Ohio State University College of Optometry, where he conducts studies of pediatric contact lens wear. Dr. Rah is a staff optometrist at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary Contact Lens Service, where she specializes in medically necessary contact lenses and advanced contact lens designs.

A study published in a recent issue of Eye & Contact Lens indicates that children ages 8 to 12 are able to successfully wear daily disposable contacts and that most children in the study preferred wearing contact lenses to wearing eyeglasses.

The three-month study was conducted in Singapore, following a protocol similar to the recent Contact Lenses in Pediatrics (CLIP) study in the United States that found similar results among teenagers.

Participants in the study were fit with 1-Day Acuvue and 1-Day Acuvue for Astigmatism disposable contacts. All children were nearsighted (with or without astigmatism) and had not worn contact lenses prior to the study.

Of the 59 children enrolled, 53 (90 percent) completed the study successfully. At the end of the three-month study period, most of the children and their parents reported preferring the contact lenses to eyeglasses for a variety of reasons, including vision, comfort and appearance.

No eye infections occurred during the study, and the only adverse event noted was the development of a chalazion in one child’s eyelid.

(Many eye doctors recommend daily disposable contacts for children who want to wear contact lenses because the single-use lenses eliminate the need for daily lens care and contact lens solutions.)

Eye & Contact Lens is the official journal of the Contact Lens Association of Ophthalmologists.