Reading Glasses to Prevent Myopia

                      http://www.mathewsopenaccess.com/ophthalmology-Vol-1-Iss-2.html

Preliminary experimental design using reading glasses at the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis are discussed. The conclusion is that (+) add lenses, used as reading glasses during study, can prevent the development of myopia for college students in pilot training.

Cheng et al. (2011, 2014) and Gwiazda et al. and Hyman et al. (2003, 2005,2014) present a comprehensive listing of modern studies to date in terms of using (+) Add reading glasses to prevent or slow the progression of myopia. Brown & Berger (1979), Brown & Young (1981), Schaeffel & Howland (1988), Medina & Fariza (1993), and Greene, Brown, Medina & Graupner (1996) use first order control theory to predict myopia development as a function of time. Thorn, Gwiazda & Held (2005) present a mathematical model of myopia development using the Gompertz function. Hung & Ciuffreda (2007) develop IRDT, incremental retinal defocus, to explain myopia during the growth phase. Medina et al. (2015, 2016) and Greene & Medina (2015, 2016) use control theory to explain myopia development, solved with digital and analog computer techniques to evaluate first-order equations. Viikari (2011) and Goldschmidt (2003) present comprehensive reviews of juvenile myopia, and various techniques used to control this myopia progression. Theories are many and varied, in terms of the causes of myopia. Figure 1a and 1b below show the nearwork demand problem, typical of college students, and the proposed optical solution to the problem, namely, custom reading glasses. 

Work done during the past twenty years has demonstrated that the accommodation system is a superb example of a physiological control system. It is a complex, sophisticated, and accurate system. We can logically expect that the normal eye will show equal competence in the design of its long-term control system.