Synergistic effect of defocus incorporated multiple segment glasses and repeated low level red light therapy against myopia progression
Yan Yang, Sen Liu, Wenwen Gao, Lei Wang, Na Liu, Shiying Zhang, Lianjing Yang, Lingyun Cheng
Abstract
Defocus incorporated multiple segment (DIMS) lenses and repeated low-level red-light (RLRL) are used to retard myopia progression. However, it is currently unknown if there is a synergistic effect of the two interventions. In the current study, 190 school-aged children with myopia (380 eyes) were studied for the change in axial length (AL) over nearly one year of follow-up. Of 380 eyes, 170 eyes wore DIMS lenses, 80 eyes had RLRL therapy, and 130 eyes had both interventions (DIMS_RLRL) for myopia control. AL changes were calculated at each follow-up visit by subtracting the baseline measurements and normalized to yearly changes in mm. AL changes as a primary outcome were analyzed in a generalized linear mixed model to compare effect sizes of myopia control among three interventions while adjusting for age, sex, baseline axial length, and follow-up length. Participants had a mean age of 9.84 ± 2.63 years old, mean AL of 24.49 ± 1.20 mm, mean SER of -2.90 ± 2.08 diopters, and mean follow-up time of 301 ± 91 days. By the end of the study, the adjusted mean yearly axial change with combination therapy was - 0.13 mm, -0.04 mm for the eyes with RLRL alone, and 0.16 mm for the eyes with DIMS lenses alone (p < 0.0001). Combination therapy of DIMS and RLRL has significantly greater effect size in controlling myopia progression than either RLRL alone (p = 0.0009) or DIMS alone (p < 0.0001).