25 September 2025
As a six-year-old, Emma Dow launched a steady flow of questions at her optometrist about the invisible changes that had prompted her world to shift out of focus.
Two decades later, this sense of curiosity underpins Dow’s approach as a lecturer at Glasgow Caledonian University.
The optometrist is currently completing a PhD on the financial and societal impact of myopia in the UK.
“Why I was interested in researching myopia probably goes right back to when I first started wearing glasses for myopia myself,” Dow told OT.
“Those regular trips to the optometrist, my prescription changing and getting new glasses, sparked my interested in studying optometry at an undergraduate level,” she said.
In August, Dow published an article in Ophthalmic and Physiological Optics exploring the prevalence and cost of optical correction for myopia in Scotland.
Alongside Glasgow Caledonian University colleagues and fellow optometrists, Stephanie Kearney and Mhairi Day, Dow examined data from Public Health Scotland on General Ophthalmic Services optical vouchers (GOS(S)3 vouchers) distributed across different age groups and for different categories of refractive error.
The researchers found that myopia accounts for 40% of annual spending on NHS spectacles for children between the ages of six and 15 in Scotland, at a total cost of £1.91 million per year.
Dow told OT that the research makes a contribution towards understanding the wide-ranging economic effects of myopia in the UK.
“The economic impact of myopia encompasses many different things – from the cost of providing correction for refractive errors, to the cost of managing myopia-related ocular diseases and associated visual impairment,” she explained.
“This study helps to provide some information towards the bigger picture of myopia costs by reporting spending on NHS funded optical vouchers for children,” Dow said.
She shared that the prevalence of myopia among children between the ages of six and 15 was estimated to be around 7% using GOS(S)3 voucher data.
However, Dow added that there was a large degree of variation in prevalence by age.
“In children aged six to seven years old, the prevalence is 2.21% for myopia, and that increases to 11.95% in 15-year-olds,” she highlighted.
The study estimated the prevalence of high myopia among children aged six to 15 at 0.26%.
Dow added that additional GOS(S)3 vouchers were more commonly issued to children with myopia than other refractive groups.
While prevalence was measured indirectly through the uptake of GOS(S)3 vouchers, uptake of vision screening among children between the ages of three and five is around 85% in Scotland.
Previous research has found no significant difference in access to NHS-funded spectacles among children according to deprivation, and rural or urban location.
Dow shared that the same approach to analysing GOS(S)3 data could be taken in other nations of the UK.
“Having this information about costs associated with myopia may be helpful when it comes to exploring the cost effectiveness of myopia management interventions,” Dow observed.
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