Emmetropia Is Maintained Despite Continued Eye Growth From 16 to 18 Years of Age

Musculoskeletal pain and headache are leading causes of years lived with disability, and an escalating problem in school children. Children spend increasingly more time reading and using digital screens, and increased near tasks intensify the workload on the precise coordination of the visual and head-stabilizing systems. Even minor vision problems can provoke headache and neck- and shoulder (pericranial) pain. This study investigated the association between headaches, pericranial tenderness, vision problems, and the need for glasses in children. An eye and physical examination was performed in twenty 10–15 year old children presenting to the school health nurse with headache and pericranial pain (pain group), and twenty age-and-gender matched classmates (control group). The results showed that twice as many children in the pain group had uncorrected vision and needed glasses. Most children were hyperopic, and glasses were recommended mainly for near work. Headache and pericranial tenderness were significantly correlated to reduced binocular vision, reduced distance vision, and the need for new glasses. That uncorrected vision problems are related to upper body musculoskeletal symptoms and headache, indicate that all children with these symptoms should have a full eye examination to promote health and academic performance.

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 69%

Headache and musculoskeletal pain in school children are associated with uncorrected vision problems and need for glasses: a case–control study

Thorud

Aurjord

Falkenberg

2021

“…Children with at least one myopic parent were over six times more likely to be classified within the Emerging Myopes refractive group compared to the Persistent Emmetropes group (OR = 6.28 [95% CI 1.01 to 38.93]). Meta-analysis by Zhang et al 37 report a significant positive association between parental myopia and a child’s risk of developing myopia, however they report a lower odds ratio of 1.53 (95% CI 1.21–1.85) when one parent had myopia and 2.19 (95% CI 1.42–2.77) when two parents were myopic. Individual studies within this meta-analysis have a range of odds ratios for risk of myopia development from 1.48 to 7.90.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Axial growth and refractive change in white European children and young adults: predictive factors for myopia

McCullough

Adamson

Breslin

et al. 2020

This report describes development of spherical equivalent refraction (SER) and axial length (AL) in two population-based cohorts of white, European children. Predictive factors for myopic growth were explored. Participants were aged 6–7- (n = 390) and 12–13-years (n = 657) at baseline. SER and AL were assessed at baseline and 3, 6 and 9 years prospectively. Between 6 and 16 years: latent growth mixture modelling identified four SER classes (Persistent Emmetropes-PEMM, Persistent Moderate Hyperopes-PMHYP, Persistent High Hyperopes-PHHYP and Emerging Myopes-EMYO) as optimal to characterise refractive progression and two classes to characterise AL. Between 12 and 22-years: five SER classes (PHHYP, PMHYP, PEMM, Low Progressing Myopes-LPMYO and High Progressing Myopes-HPMYO) and four AL classes were identified. EMYO had significantly longer baseline AL (≥ 23.19 mm) (OR 2.5, CI 1.05–5.97) and at least one myopic parent (OR 6.28, CI 1.01–38.93). More myopic SER at 6–7 years (≤ + 0.19D) signalled risk for earlier myopia onset by 10-years in comparison to baseline SER of those who became myopic by 13 or 16 years (p ≤ 0.02). SER and AL progressed more slowly in myopes aged 12–22-years (− 0.16D, 0.15 mm) compared to 6–16-years (− 0.41D, 0.30 mm). These growth trajectories and risk criteria allow prediction of abnormal myopigenic growth and constitute an important resource for developing and testing anti-myopia interventions.

“…The lens is an avascular tissue located in the anterior chamber of the eye that grows throughout the life of the individual. Its physiological role is to refract light onto the retina and this function must be maintained initially as the eye develops, but then adapt to different growth requirements as the eye ages 1 – 4 . For mammals, the postnatal period of development is where the most accelerated growth phase takes place and when the growth of the different tissues of the eye is integrated to deliver the required visual properties 5 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Three-dimensional data capture and analysis of intact eye lenses evidences emmetropia-associated changes in epithelial cell organization

Kalligeraki

Isted

Jarrı́n

et al. 2020

Organ and tissue development are highly coordinated processes; lens growth and functional integration into the eye (emmetropia) is a robust example. An epithelial monolayer covers the anterior hemisphere of the lens, and its organization is the key to lens formation and its optical properties throughout all life stages. To better understand how the epithelium supports lens function, we have developed a novel whole tissue imaging system using conventional confocal light microscopy and a specialized analysis software to produce three-dimensional maps for the epithelium of intact mouse lenses. The open source software package geometrically determines the anterior pole position, the equatorial diameter, and three-dimensional coordinates for each detected cell in the epithelium. The user-friendly cell maps, which retain global lens geometry, allow us to document age-dependent changes in the C57/BL6J mouse lens cell distribution characteristics. We evidence changes in epithelial cell density and distribution in C57/BL6J mice during the establishment of emmetropia between postnatal weeks 4–6. These epithelial changes accompany a previously unknown spheroid to lentoid shape transition of the lens as detected by our analyses. When combined with key findings from previous mouse genetic and cell biological studies, we suggest a cytoskeleton-based mechanism likely underpins these observations.