November 3, 2022
ST. LOUIS – The World Council of Optometry (WCO) and CooperVision released the results of a survey on the uptake of myopia management among global eye care professionals. The survey builds on the WCO global resolution to advance myopia management as the standard of care.
WCO and CooperVision have worked to shift the profession away from the concept of simply correcting refractive error to understanding the elements of the WCO’s recommended Standard of Care for Myopia Management by Optometrists (2021).* The standard of care is based upon the three pillars of mitigation, management, and measurement.
The survey explores the changing attitudes of optometrists worldwide in adopting myopia management in their practices. As part of a virtual event, “Myopia Management: Putting it Into Practice” attended by 1,245 individuals representing 95 countries earlier this year, WCO conducted pre- and post-event surveys aimed at evaluating the impact of the educational content of the program on clinical practice.
Among 375 respondents to the survey:
- 83% of the pre-survey group responded that they “strongly agree” and 13% “somewhat agree that myopia management should be the standard of care
- On the post-survey, these increased to 87% “strongly agree” and 9% “somewhat agree”
- 89.5% in the post-survey reported that they would approach myopia management in children differently
- 156 eye care professionals indicated the need for further education on myopia management
“We are encouraged by the results of the survey which showed that global eye care professionals feel that learning more about myopia management is important to better care for their patients,” said Sandra Block, OD, WCO President-elect. “We believe the optometry sector should be mindful to create accessible, equitable, evidence-based resources that reflect the growth of knowledge in best practices for the management of progressive myopia in children.”
Clinical information and other resources resulting from the partnership between WCO and CooperVision include virtual presentations, published articles, and a website with multilingual myopia management resources. The goal is for optometrists across the globe to embrace myopia management as the Standard of Care and to make it an integral part of their practices.
CooperVision presented a poster of the results, “Moving the Profession to Embrace Myopia Management” (Block, Hendicott, Lumb, Cooper, Bockhahn-Tylecote) at the 2022 American Academy of Optometry annual meeting in San Diego.
*https://myopia.worldcouncilofoptometry.info
