The effect of adaptation to progressive addition lenses on reading behavior in Chinese myopic children

Abstract

Purpose : Several clinical trials reported evidence that progressive lenses (PALs) may slow myopia progression in children. Although studies based on questionnaire surveys have indicated that PALs provided a similar level of comfort and compliance for myopic children as compared with single vision lenses, some children with PALs reported discomfort or difficulties in adapting to newly provided PALs. However, it is unclear how children can cope with these problems associated with the use of PALs in daily activities, such as reading behavior during near work. The aim of this study was therefore to evaluate the effect of adaptation to PALs on reading behavior during near work in Chinese myopic children.

Methods : 62 myopic children aged 7 to 11 years (mean ± SD, 9.6 ± 0.9 years) participated in this study. Their refractive errors (spherical equivalent) ranged from -0.75D to -4.50D (-1.93 ± 0.83 D), and all of them had no prior history of bifocal or PALs wear. The task for every subject was to read Chinese stories on a standard A5-size paper including 15 lines with Chinese Song font. For every subject, posture during reading was measured using an electromagnetic motion tracking system (Fastrack, Polhemus, USA) both before and after at least one month adaptation to newly provided PALs (Essilor Myopilux Pro,+2.00D addition). Postural parameters such as working distance, head declination and eye declination were calculated for analysis.

Results : One month adaptation to PALs had no effect on reading distance (before adaptation: 30.0 ± 4.2 cm; after adaptation: 29.8 ± 5.4 cm), head declination (before: 32.1 ± 9.7°; after: 33.0 ± 9.1°), or eye declination (before: 18.9 ± 7.6°; after: 17.5 ± 7.5°) (all P > 0.05).

Conclusions : One month adaptation to PALs did not influence reading behavior during near work in Chinese myopic children.

This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.