Contact lenses help boost quality of life

Columbus, OH-Children's vision-related quality of life is better with contact lenses (CLs) than glasses, especially in the areas of athletics, appearance, and satisfaction with correction, according to data from a 3-year, multi-site study.

A total of 484 8-to-11-year-old myopic children participated in the randomized, single-masked trial conducted from September 2003 to October 2007 at five clinical centers in the United States. The children, all of whom wore spectacles at baseline, were randomly assigned to continue wearing spectacles (n=237) or to receive CLs (n=247) for 3 years. Children randomly assigned to wear CLs were provided the option of daily disposable or 2-week disposable lenses, and daily disposables were chosen by 93.3% of the subjects.

Scores are scaled from zero (poor quality of life) to 100 (good quality of life). The PREP survey was administered at the baseline examination, after 1 month, and then every 6 months for 3 years. It consists of 11 scales: activities, appearance, far vision, near vision, handling, peer perception, satisfaction, academics, symptoms, overall vision, and overall PREP (the mean score of all questions).