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Download a PDF of Myopia Management.

As record numbers of children and adults around the world suffer from myopia and its effects, the conversation about this common but potentially serious eye condition has been steadily broadening. With the crisis now reaching global proportions, growing numbers of eyecare practitioners and allied health care professionals, as well as parents and children, are understanding that failing to manage myopia from an early age can result in serious ocular health problems that may eventually cause blindness.

New research findings are spurring action on many fronts, lending an urgency to the development and adoption of new products and treatments, including contact and spectacle lenses aimed specifically at slowing myopia progression. This was evident at two major professional meetings held last month: The International Myopia Conference, held in September in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, and T.H.E. Summit, a gathering of Treehouse Eyes practitioners held in Las Vegas during Vision Expo West. Both meetings provided a forum for researchers, clinicians and lens designers to share the latest myopia knowledge. The following articles, originally published in Review of Myopia Management, describe both myopia meetings and summarize the learnings that were shared among attendees.

As more eyecare professionals are learning how to best manage myopia progression, the mainstream media is also calling attention to the myopia crisis. The publication last month of an article in The Atlantic, titled “The Myopia Generation, Why do so many kids need glasses now?” provides a global overview of myopia, including the rates of myopia in Asia, Europe, Africa, and the U.S. It also dives into the history of myopia, and what about our current lifestyles is making children more myopic and why the onset of the disease is happening much earlier.