With contact lenses against myopia: New vision aids are supposed to stop the deterioration of the eyes

By 2050, more than 50 percent of the population should be nearsighted - that is, they can only see sharply up close. Newly developed contact lenses should help.

• More and more people need glasses - myopia is one of the most common optical ametropia.
• Several causes are discussed, especially the lifestyle probably plays a decisive role. Infrequent "looking into the distance" and long reading phases - whether with a book or with a smartphone * - trigger the development of eye diseases.
• An American research team has now developed soft contact lenses that are designed to slow the progression of myopia.

In 2000, around 23 percent of people worldwide had problems with seeing clearly in the distance. And the prognosis looks bleak: By 2050, 54 percent of the world's population will suffer from myopia and will therefore be among those who wear glasses. You can live with glasses, but the risk of retinal detachment increases with severe myopia . People with severe myopia, the medical term for nearsightedness, are also more likely to develop glaucoma or cataracts.

Why myopia is becoming more and more common has not been conclusively clarified: "My personal feeling is that we have not yet found the real cause," the Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) quotes the biophysicist Frank Schaeffel from the Ophthalmology Research Institute of the University of Tübingen and the Institute for Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology in Basel. The fact is, however, that short reading distances and long reading in combination with too little time outdoors promote the development of eye diseases. Children who seldom look into the distance and spend a lot of time in front of books and smartphones, in particular, develop nearsightedness more often than their peers who spend a lot of time outdoors. Just under three quarters of an hour in the open air should train the eyes and protect them from poor eyesight.

Also read : If you use these sunglasses, you can damage your eyes .

New contact lens protects children from severe myopia

A group of American researchers from Ohio, Texas and Florida now claim to have found a solution to the increasing myopia worldwide: soft contact lenses, which in a first study slowed the deterioration of eyesight in almost 300 children. The newly developed lens is constructed in such a way that every light beam - regardless of whether it hits the eye from the front or the side - is focused directly on the retina or in front of the retina. The aim is to prevent the children's eyes from growing in length, as the SZ reports . An eyeball that is too long is a major cause of myopia.

In the video: Every fourth person is already nearsighted

The new contact lens is having an effect: "We have slowed the progression of myopia by 43 percent," says study director Jeffrey J. Walline from the College of Optometry at Ohio State University. Over the three-year study period, the children's eyes only deteriorated by 0.6 diopters when they used the newly developed contact lenses. In the comparison group who wore normal contact lenses, an eye test showed a deterioration of 1.05 diopters after three years.

To the study published in the journal JAMA

Hard contact lenses and drops for myopia

There are other ways to prevent myopia from getting worse in children. Atropine drops and / or special hard contact lenses also have an effect. However, the former are not approved for the treatment of myopia in Germany. To prevent nearsightedness in the first place, parents should spend as much time as possible with their offspring outdoors. Because just 40 minutes in the fresh air can reduce the risk by almost a quarter, as the SZ reports. (jg) * Merkur.de belongs to the Germany-wide Ippen-Digital editorial network . 

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