OPTICAL PRISM | FEATURE
Low vision , myopia control and Kevin Bacon
By Dr . Michael Nelson , FAAO ,
President of Canadian Association of Optometrists
Specialization in eye care has been a popular topic in the past few years , but sometimes seemingly unrelated eye care topics are more closely connected than we think .
Let ’ s take myopia control and low vision –– could they be the eye care equivalent of six degrees of Kevin Bacon ?
Six degrees of Kevin Bacon ( star of films Mystic River , A Few Good Men and Footloose ) refers to a game in which players identify a connection between him and other actors in less than six steps .
I am not a movie expert but judging by the minification effect in his glasses , I am pretty sure Kevin Bacon is myopic . So , Kevin Bacon ’ s myopia is no big deal you say ? Well , the World Health Organization begs to differ .
Dr . Silvio Mariotti , senior medical officer at the WHO , on preventing blindness globally , recently shared some of the findings of the WHO ’ s recent World Report on Vision with the Canadian Association of Optometrists .
In 2020 , about three in 10 people globally are myopic and this number is increasing . Another significant problem is the number of people with uncorrected myopia .
Even Canada has some populations that struggle to gain access to even basic eye care , including glasses . Of even more concern is the future risk of eye disease and vision loss due to high myopia as an adult . There is an 846 times greater risk of developing myopic macular degeneration ( MMD ) as an adult if you are a high myope than if you aren ’ t .
MMD is the seventh leading cause of legal blindness in the United States , but the second in Japan and China .
Low vision due to MMD can result in blind spots in your central vision , but it can also cause glaucoma and retinal detachments . If myopia is increasing among children , in five to six decades the number of individuals with low vision secondary to myopia will also increase .
Consequently , the myopia control options provided today are working to reduce the low vision care needed in the future .
So back to Kevin Bacon .
I don ’ t know if you are keeping track , but I think the separation goes something like this : Kevin Bacon – Myopia – WHO – CAO – eye disease – MMD – low vision .
Sometimes eye care issues are less separate than we think . OP
REFERENCES WHO World Report on Vision 2019
https :// apps . who . int / iris / bitstream / handle / 10665 / 328721 / WHO- NMH-NVI-19.12-eng . pdf
https :// apps . who . int / iris / bitstream / handle / 10665 / 328717 / 978924 1516570-eng . pdf
Haarman AE et al . The Complications of Myopia : A Review and Meta-Analysis . Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science . 2020 Apr 9 ; 61:49
https :// iovs . arvojournals . org / article . aspx ? articleid = 2765517
Raju Kaiti ., et al . “ Myopic Degeneration and it ’ s Low Vision Management- A Review ”. Acta
Scientific Ophthalmology 3.6 ( 2020 ): 13-17 . https :// actascientific . com / ASOP / pdf / ASOP-03-0129 . pdf
28 OPTICAL PRISM | March 2021