Can a simple therapy shining a red light into kids eyes help stave off myopia?

Daily doses of red light may help keep myopia away in premyopic children. Repeated use of low-level red-light (RLRL) therapy has been proposed as an approach to slow-down the progression of myopia in people with premyopia. Some reports say it helps increase blood flow and stabilize axial elongation, “which might suggest that RLRL therapy could ameliorate scleral hypoxia and thus prevent the development of myopia,” according to researchers writing in JAMA Network Open. To test the idea, a randomized, year-long, controlled trial was conducted of 278 school children in China. They had an average age of 8.3 years, and 51.1% were male and were enrolled between April 1, 2021 and June 30, 2021. Detailed eye examinations were conducted at baseline and at the three, six, nine and 12 month, during follow-up visits. The trial was completed Aug. 31, 2022. All the participants had premyopia, but those with astigmatism of 1.50 diopters or more, or who had other eye abnormalities were excluded. Myopia is common in China. In fact, in some parts of East and Southeast Asia, myopia prevalence among teenagers is about 80% to 90%. It's an important condition because “early-onset myopia is more likely to progress to high myopia, which significantly increases the risk of potential vision-threatening conditions, such as myopic macular degeneration,” the study said. A total of 139 children were in the study's intervention group and received the RLRL intervention, while those in the control group had no intervention. The RLRL intervention was delivered by a desktop device which consisted of semiconductor laser diodes and delivered low-level red light with a mean wavelength of 650 (10) nm. The intervention was done twice daily, five days per week. Each session lasted three minutes. At one year, myopia was found in 40.8% (49 of 120 children) in the intervention group, and 61.3% (68 of 111) in the control group. The absolute mean difference between the groups was 20.4%, representing a 33.4% reduction in incidence, the study said.

Can a simple therapy shining a red light into kids eyes help stave off myopia?

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