Ancestry may be a factor in the effectiveness of low-dose atropine eye drops for myopia control, according to an Australian-first study conducted at the Lions Eye Institute (LEI).
Results from the first randomised clinical trial in low-concentration atropine for myopia control in a multiracial cohort of Australian children have recently been published.
Overall, the study showed that 0.01% atropine eye drops have a modest effect – slowing down myopia progression by 35%, and slowing down eye growth by 33%, after 18 months of treatment.
But the study found that the eye drops were very effective in children of European descent – being able to slow down both myopia progression and eye growth by 50% in the first year.
In children of mixed Asian-European and other non-Asian descent, the eye drops were even more effective, slowing down myopia by 59% and eye growth by 96% in the first year.
However, the eye drops did not have an effect in children with solely an East/South Asian ancestry. The study authors recommend that these children may require higher concentrations of eye drops.
The eye drops seemed to lose effect between 18 and 24 months of treatment. According to the study’s authors, this was likely because over time, some study participants withdrew from the trial – and these participants were more likely to have faster myopia progression. Thus, the effects of the eye drops may have been underestimated in the study.
The findings were recently presented and well-received by global myopia experts at the International Myopia Institute in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
The presentation session was co-chaired by the study lead author, Dr Samantha Sze-Yee Lee from the Lions Eye Institute, and Dr Jason Yam of the low-concentration atropine for myopia progression (LAMP) study in Hong Kong.
Importantly, this is not only an Australia-first study, but also the first such randomised trial in a Western population and in a multiracial cohort of children, LEI stated.
The results of the study, Low-concentration atropine eyedrops for myopia control in a multi-racial cohort of Australian children: A randomised clinical trial, were published in August 2022 in the RANZCO journal Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology.
More reading
Atropine for myopia control: science and practice
New data on MiYOSMART combination therapy with atropine
