Campaign calls for more conversations about myopia

A campaign has been launched to encourage more discussions about myopia between optometrists and parents, alongside a petition that is calling on the Government to fund awareness campaigns and treatments.

The #MyopiaChat campaign is hoping to inspire 1 million conversations about myopia between parents and eye care professionals in the UK in 2022. 

In addition, the multiple-pronged campaign aims to spark conversations between parents in the community, as well as within the optical industry and with the Government.

The campaign has been launched by Tom Griffiths, an entrepreneur who recently joined Scotlens after seeing the benefits of myopia control devices for his own myopic son. Beginning as a volunteer parent case study, Griffiths now aims to help “engage both the public and the industry together in a way to deliver constructive change.”

A key component of the campaign is a Change.org petition, which has been created to motivate the Government to take steps to address myopia. Campaigners are inviting eye care professionals to sign the petition by 31 May 2022. 

The petition calls on the UK Government to agree to a UK Myopia Strategy by 31 December 2022. This should be developed in consultation with the devolved Governments, the campaigners said, and by engaging with the optical profession to address key issues, such as the implications of myopia and the costs.

The petition also urges the Government to fund myopia awareness campaigns targeted at parents from the first quarter of 2023, and to agree to consider and fund myopia reduction treatments for all children in the UK by 2024.

Research has suggested that 50% of the world will be myopic by 2050. Describing this as a “myopia epidemic,” campaigners have suggested that when the effects of this are seen in the future it will “cost the UK more to fix then, than to prevent now.”

The campaign has identified three problems with how myopia is discussed and treated in the UK currently. The first is the use of the colloquial term ‘short-sighted’ rather than the medical term of myopia when talking to parents of children with signs of the eye condition.

With more myopia management options available, the campaign emphasised: “Parents have a right… to be made aware of all the management/control options.”

Finally, as these treatment options are not currently available on the NHS, there are concerns, the campaign illustrated, that the costs might prohibit access for lower income families.