ST. LOUIS, MO, USA, October 28, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The World Council of Optometry (WCO) and industry leading partner, CooperVision, shared the results of a survey on the uptake of myopia management among global eye care professionals with attendees at the 2022 American Academy of Optometry annual meeting in San Diego. Building on the WCO global resolution which hopes to advance myopia management as the standard of care, WCO and CooperVision presented a poster, Moving the Profession to Embrace Myopia Management (Block, Hendicott, Lumb, Cooper, Bockhahn-Tylecote) today at the conference.
In past decades, the increasing prevalence of myopia has been seen as a growing public health epidemic.1 There has been significant research delving into myopia as a disease showing that it can lead to vision threatening conditions2 Clinically useful, evidence-based interventions to help delay the onset of, and slow the progression of myopia are becoming increasingly available.3-5 For these reasons, WCO and CooperVision have worked to shift the profession away from the concept of simply correcting refractive error to understanding the elements of our recommended Standard of Care for Myopia Management by Optometrists (2021)6. The standard of care is based upon the three pillars of mitigation, management, and measurement.

The poster explores the changing attitudes of optometrists worldwide in adopting myopia management in their practices. As part of a virtual event, “Myopia Management: Putting it Into Practice” attended by 1,245 individuals representing 95 countries earlier this year, WCO conducted pre- and post-event surveys aimed at evaluating the impact of the educational content of the program on clinical practice. Questions included:

• Are you currently a practicing eye care professional?
• How long have you been practicing?
• Do you believe myopia management should be a standard of care for all myopic children?
• Do you currently offer myopia management in your practice? If not, do you plan on adding it to your practice going forward?
• Did the information in the webinar change your approach?

Among 375 respondents to the survey:

• 83% of the pre-survey group responded that they “strongly agree” and 13% “somewhat agree that myopia management should be the standard of care
• On the post-survey, these increased to 87% “strongly agree” and 9% “somewhat agree”
• 89.5% in the post-survey reported that they would approach myopia management in children differently
• 156 eye care professionals indicated the need for further education on myopia management

“We are encouraged by the results of the survey which showed that global eye care professionals feel that learning more about myopia management is important to better care for their patients,” said Sandra Block, OD, World Council of Optometry President-elect. “We believe the optometry sector should be mindful to create accessible, equitable, evidence-based resources that reflect the growth of knowledge in best practices for the management of progressive myopia in children. Our website, myopia.worldcouncilofoptometry.info is an excellent place to start the myopia management journey.”

The partnership between WCO and CooperVision shares the clinical information grounded and rooted in science that eye care professionals need to best serve their myopic patients. Resources include virtual presentations, published articles and a website with multi-lingual myopia management resources that may have not previously been widely accessible or actively addressed in certain sectors or countries. The goal is for optometrists across the globe to embrace myopia management as the Standard of Care and to make it an integral part of their practices. For more information, visit www.worldcouncilofoptometry.info

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1. The impact of myopia and high myopia: report of the Joint World Health Organization–BHVI Global Scientific Meeting on Myopia, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, 16–18 March 2015. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2017
2. Flitcroft D I, The complex interactions of retinal, optical and environmental factors in myopia aetiology, Progress in Retinal and Eye Research, 2012 Volume 31, Issue 6, Pages 622-660.
3. Xiong S, Sankaridurg P et al. Time spent in outdoor activities in relation to myopia prevention and control: a meta-analysis and systematic review. Acta Ophthalmol. 2017 Sep;95(6):551-566.
4. Wildsoet C F, Chia A et al; IMI – Interventions for Controlling Myopia Onset and Progression Report. Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. 2019;60(3):M106-M131
5. Brennan NA, Toubouti YM, Cheng X, Bullimore MA. Efficacy in myopia control. Prog Retin Eye Res. 2021 Jul;83:100923
6. https://myopia.worldcouncilofoptometry.info

About the World Council of Optometry
The World Council of Optometry (WCO) is an international membership-based non-profit organization for individual optometrists, industry professionals and optometric organizations that envisions a world where optometry makes high quality eye health and vision care accessible to all people. Its mission is to facilitate the development of optometry around the world and support optometrists in promoting eye health and vision care as a human right through advocacy, education, policy development and humanitarian outreach. To learn more, please visit www.worldoptometry.org or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Media Contact:

Charla Kucko
World Council of Optometry
+1 585-434-2146
charla@mcdougallpr.com