The issue of juvenile myopia from the parents’ point of view

Abstract

The success of preventing the development and progression of myopia in children depends on establishing compliance between the doctor and the patient (parents).Purpose: to study the attitude of parents of myopic children towards the issue of myopia and methods of its control.Materials and methods. 106 doctors from 53 regions of Russia and 2931 parents of myopic children took part in a prospective multicenter epidemiological observational study in the form of a questionnaire.Results. As preferable interventions to control myopia, parents mention single vision glasses (67.9 %), glasses with perifocal lenses (16.3 %), bifocal or progressive glasses (3.4 %), other types of glasses (1.6 %), soft contact lenses (11.5 %), orthokeratology lenses (5.8 %), while 13.8 % of myopic children do not use any of those. The average time that children spend on visual work amounts to 10 hours a day, while their light-time daily outdoor activities last for 2.12 ± 1.39 hours. Only 27.1 % of the parents surveyed follow all recommendations of the eye doctor. The reasons for not following are lack of time (45.1 %), complexity of implementation (7.3 %), high cost of treatment (8.5 %), other reasons (39.1 %). Parents consider that the most effective interventions to control myopia are eye drops instillation courses (53.4 %), device-assisted therapy (59.6 %), home visual gymnastics (52.4 %), orthokeratology lenses (13.7 %), bifocal soft contact lenses (4.6 %), specialty glasses (22.7 %), vitamins intake (44.4 %), while 10.6 % believe opinion that no effective myopia control methods exist.Conclusion. Parents choose single vision glasses as the main optical interventi on method. Near visual work significantly reduces physical activity in the children’s daily routine. Parents’ failure to comply with the medical advice is mostly due to lack of time. The most effective methods of myopia control are considered to be pharmacological treatment, device-assisted therapy and home visual gymnastics.