PolyU Team Creates New Lens To Slow Myopia In Kids

Researchers at Polytechnic University say they have invented a new spectacle lens that can help slow the progress of short-sightedness, or myopia, in children.

They tested out the new lens on 79 short-sighted children aged between 8 and 13 and found that after two years, they showed an average of two-thirds less myopic progression than a control group.

The researchers said they also found that myopia stopped progressing altogether in one in five children who wore the glasses throughout the study.

The head of the university's School of Optometry, To Chi-ho, said the lens uses a method called “myopic defocus” to control the growth of the eye, and as a result, it stops myopia from worsening.

To said the lens provides very good distant and near vision and the children didn't report any problems.

"During the course of this study, we did not say under what particular condition the lens should be used. We said the kids can use the lens whenever they wanted, playing sport or doing studies, or whatever. The feedback we got from those kids, they seemed to like it very much and it didn't really affect their daily activities at all."