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HealthDay News — A repeated low-level, red-light (RLRL) intervention is effective for preventing myopia among children with premyopia, according to a study published online April 26 in JAMA Network Open.
Xiangui He, PhD, from the Shanghai Eye Hospital, and colleagues conducted a 12-month school-based randomized clinical trial involving children in grades 1 to 4 with premyopia to examine the efficacy and safety of an RLRL intervention for preventing incident myopia. Children in the intervention group received RLRL therapy twice per day, 5 days per week, while those in the control group continued usual activities (139 children in each group).
The researchers found that the 12-month incidence of myopia was 40.8 and 61.3% in the intervention and control groups, respectively, representing a 33.4% reduction in incidence. Children in the intervention group who did not have treatment interruption secondary to the COVID-19 pandemic had an incidence of 28.1%, representing a 54.1% reduction in incidence. Significant reductions in myopic shifts in terms of axial length and cycloplegic spherical equivalence refraction were seen with the RLRL intervention (mean, 0.30 vs 0.47 mm; and −0.35 vs −0.76 D, respectively). On optical coherence tomography scans, there was no visual acuity or structural damage noted in the intervention group.
“Our findings have public health significance, especially for myopia prevention in countries with a high incidence of myopia,” the authors write. “More studies are needed to understand the long-term efficacy and safety, optimal intervention dose, and potential underlying mechanisms of the RLRL intervention.”
Two authors have a patent pending; one reported financial ties to Eyerising Ltd. and Eyerising International Pty Ltd.
