Study to shed light on myopia management

A Swiss optometrist is conducting an online survey to gauge myopia management practices in different parts of the world.

Pascal Blaser, who specialises in myopia management, has created the survey to feed into an article and presentation that he is developing, titled Myopia management in practice – a worldwide review.

Mr Blaser told OT that the survey focused on calculating the proportion of practitioners offering myopia management and what type of management was offered.

“It also looks at what some of the barriers to implementing myopia management might be so that they can be addressed,” he elaborated.

Mr Blaser is aiming to gather responses from the survey, which takes about ten minutes to complete, by the end of October.

He highlighted that myopia is a “very real problem” in the developed world.

“The problem is not just the inconvenience of glasses, but the risk of developing sight threatening eye conditions increases dramatically with each dioptre increase in myopia,” Mr Blaser explained.

“My motivation comes from wanting to bring the theoretical ideas into practice. It is important for practitioners to understand where the risks are for children, as well as what the treatment options are,” he added.

The data gathered through the survey will be used in presentations and published on Mr Blaser’s blog. 

“I would like to revisit the survey in a few years’ time to compare how practice has changed,” Mr Blaser shared.

This week the International Myopia Conference will be hosted by Aston University in Birmingham. The event runs from 14–17 September.