Undercorrection of myopia enhances rather than inhibits myopia progression

• Published in: Vision research (Oxford) Vol. 42; no. 22; pp. 2555 - 2559
• Main Authors: Chung, Kahmeng, Mohidin, Norhani, O’Leary, Daniel J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01-10-2002; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Adolescent; Analysis of Variance; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Disease Progression; Emmetropization; Eyeglasses; Female; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Myopia; Myopia - etiology; Myopia - physiopathology; Myopia - therapy; Ophthalmology; Patient Compliance; Refractive error; Vision disorders; Visual Acuity; Emmetropization; Refractive error; Myopia; Human; Vision disorder; Evolutivity; Eye disease; Treatment; Quality; Defect; Child; Corrections; Comparative study
• ISSN: 0042-6989; 1878-5646
• DOI: 10.1016/S0042-6989(02)00258-4

The effect of myopic defocus on myopia progression was assessed in a two-year prospective study on 94 myopes aged 9{14 years, randomly allocated to an undercorrected group or a fully corrected control group. The 47 experimental subjects were blurred by approximately +0.75 D (blurring VA to 6/12), while the controls were fully corrected. Undercorrection produced more rapid myopia progression and axial elongation (ANOVA,
F(1,374)=14.32,
p<0.01). Contrary to animal studies, myopic defocus speeds up myopia development in already myopic humans. Myopia could be caused by a failure to detect the direction of defocus rather than by a mechanism exhibiting a zero-point error.