Study explores advantages of very young babies at risk of CVI wearing glasses

A new feasibility trial published in BMJ Open has explored the advantages of very young infants at high risk of cerebral visual impairment wearing near-vision glasses.

The Babies in Glasses trial, which included researchers from the International Centre for Eye Health, involved 55 babies born before 29 weeks of gestation or born at full-term with hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy.

The study cohort was divided into three groups – babies who began wearing near vision glasses at the corrected age of eight weeks, babies who began wearing near vision glasses at the corrected age of 16 weeks, and babies who did not wear glasses. Among the study group, 28 babies completed the trial.

The median wear time was around two hours per day in both of the intervention groups.

The researchers found that babies who received glasses at eight weeks corrected age experienced the greatest improvements in visual acuity over the six-month study period.

“The present study provides evidence that the prescription of near vision glasses to young infants at risk of perinatal brain insults is feasible and that outcomes may be enhanced compared with no glasses or when glasses are prescribed at eight weeks post-term rather than at 16 weeks,” the study authors explained.

The researchers are now planning a larger randomised controlled trial involving infants born before 29 weeks and offering glasses at the corrected age of eight weeks.