Korea faces urgent call to combat rising myopia crisis in youth

Experts pointed out that myopia is a progressive chronic disease that does not improve over time but worsens throughout childhood and should be recognized as a national problem, not an individual one.

As it affects children's social and emotional development, academic achievement, and the likelihood of developing eye diseases, including glaucoma and macular degeneration, later, it is necessary to mitigate the progression to severe or high myopia at an early stage to improve the quality of life and reduce medical expenses, they noted.

Professor Paik Hae-jung of the Department of Ophthalmology at Gachon University Gil Hospital made these and other points, speaking on myopia in children and adolescents at a news conference of the Asia-Pacific Myopia Management Symposium (APMMS) held by CooperVision at the Shilla Hotel in Seoul on Tuesday.

Paik also heads the Korean Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus (KAPOS) and the Korean Myopia Society (KMS).

Professor Paik explained the prevalence of myopia in Korea and its serious long-term effects on eye health, emphasizing the importance of early diagnosis and appropriate treatment.

“Recent reports show that Korea has become the country with the fastest growing myopia population in Asia,” Paik said. “Myopia can no longer be an individual condition. It is now recognized as a global and national problem.”

Professor Paik noted that people didn't think of myopia as a disease in the past.

“We used to think that if you wear glasses, you can see better, but pediatric myopia does not improve once it occurs. It is a progressive chronic disease that continues to worsen throughout childhood until the eyeball stops growing, which is the end of adolescence,” she pointed out. “The perception of myopia as a disease is changing because it has a huge impact on quality of life and national healthcare finances, so it needs to be well managed throughout the life cycle.”

Park explained that instead of treating myopia after it has progressed to a point where it is debilitating and causes a variety of disorders, the paradigm is shifting toward slowing the progression of myopia and mitigating its progression to severe or high myopia. To this end, she emphasized that it is important to identify myopia at an early stage, choose the appropriate method according to each patient's lifestyle and environment from childhood and adolescence, and continue treatment throughout the growth period without giving up.

“In addition to the attention of medical professionals, patients, and their caregivers must share the interest, effort, and responsibility for myopia prevention and management,” Dr. Paik said. “We need attention and support for national eye health at the national level, including policies on eye health care, including myopia management, and the introduction of educational curricula in schools to curb the progression of myopia.”

Paik noted that the conference was born out of a consensus among experts that there is a great need for systematic and integrated myopia management and treatment for children and adolescents in Korea. She added that various solutions are being developed to alleviate and control myopia. If effectively utilized, they could be of tremendous benefit in managing pediatric myopia.

Professor Paik also expressed the society's intention to standardize the diagnosis and treatment of myopia in children and adolescents and establish long-term treatment strategies with CooperVision's cooperation.

“Our association will continue to interact with academics at home and abroad to advance the field of pediatric ophthalmology and be at the forefront of protecting children's eye health, including myopia prevention,” Paik said. “This year's partnership with CooperVision will allow myopia specialists from Asia-Pacific countries to share the latest advances in myopia management and establish a broad consensus on standard management guidelines at the Asia-Pacific Myopia Management Symposium (APMMS) on Sunday.”

CooperVision is a leading global contact lens manufacturer with diverse products for preventing severe myopia, including MiSight socket contact lenses, Paragon CRT dream lenses, and myopia correction glasses.

MiSight is a dual-focus lens with both a myopia-correcting zone and a myopia-relieving zone powered by ActivControl technology, and is the first and only U.S. FDA-approved lens to correct vision and slow the progression of myopia with 10 hours of daily wear. Worn during the day, MiSight is an innovative solution shown in three years of clinical trials to reduce the rate of myopia progression in children by an average of 59 percent and reduce axial growth by an average of 52 percent, according to CooperVision.

“For a long time, myopia has been considered a vision disorder. However, myopia is a progressive, chronic disease that can have a significant impact on children's daily lives and their eye health as adults,” said Kathy Park, who heads CooperVision Asia-Pacific. “Studies have shown that reducing the progression of myopia by just one diopter can reduce the risk of myopic macular degeneration by 40 percent, so managing myopia is very important and has a huge impact on children's lives.”

With this in mind, CooperVision is committed to working with healthcare providers worldwide to raise awareness of the importance of myopia management and continue our research to help more children catch myopia in time and maintain their vision and eye health throughout their growing years, Park added.

Silas Gupta, head of the Pediatric Myopia Division at CooperVision Asia-Pacific, said, “We look forward to sharing global myopia management trends and advances in myopia management in the Asia-Pacific region with global and Asia-Pacific pediatric myopia experts to help set the standard of care for pediatric myopia.”

Lim Heung-sup, managing director for CooperVision Korea, said, “MiSight, launched in Korea in 2022, has a wide range of vision correction, myopia progression reduction, and excellent comfort that existing solutions could not cover,”

He added that MiSight showed excellent effects on myopia progression reduction and eye socket growth in the long term for six years, and a one-year study from the seventh year confirmed the myopia progression reduction effect when MiSight was discontinued. It showed the same sustained effect as the previous treatment without the rebound effect of losing the effectiveness of the previous treatment and rapidly returning to normal.

“MiSight not only showed excellent results in reducing myopia progression for 10 years but also secured stability in the shape of the density distribution in the cornea and endothelial cells, which are representative of the stability of the eye,” Lim said.

CooperVision Korea CEO Choi Eui-kyung said, “We will continue to strengthen our collaboration with medical professionals in Korea to promote the importance of early intervention and prevention of myopia, establish standardization of myopia management through this APMMS, and contribute to the improvement of pediatric myopia in the Asia-Pacific region.”