Feb. 29, 2024 — At the recently held 2024 Global Specialty Lens Symposium (GSLS), CooperVision highlighted the lack of timely management, and contact lens prescribing, for refractive error and/or ocular disease among children. 

CooperVision’s research presentation, “Current Trends in Pediatric Eye Examinations and Contact Lens Prescribing in the U.S.,” analyzed data from more than 70,000 pediatric eye exams to reveal the proportions of vision screenings by age group; the prevalence of myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism, and premyopia; how many are prescribed contact lenses; and the distribution of contact lens categories prescribed. 

Here are some key takeaways from the presentation:

• Of the pediatric eye exams analyzed, 43.5% of children exhibit more than 0.50DS of myopia in at least one eye.
• Fourteen percent of children undergoing eye exams are aged 7 or younger.
• 1 in 2 children ages 5 to 12 potentially have premyopia (+0.50 to -0.25DS) in at least one eye.
• Only 15% of children were prescribed contact lenses.

“The importance of early eye examinations in pediatric populations cannot be overstated, since they facilitate the timely detection and management of various visual impairments, including myopia,” says CooperVision senior manager for myopia management Justin Kwan, O.D., FAAO, the paper’s lead author. “Our data underscores the need for early intervention strategies, and the significant underutilization of contact lens prescriptions by ECPs for pediatric patients.”