Nearwork induced transient myopia during myopia progression

Purpose. Recent work has shown that differences exist in the accommodation response characteristics of myopes and emmetropes, although the exact nature of the differences has yet to be ascertained. This may in part be due to the classification of the refractive error employed in many studies. Previously it has been suggested that inaccuracies in the accommodation response occur predominantly during the progression of myopia.(1) To test this hypothesis we measure nearwork induced transient myopia (NITM) in progressing myopes (PMs), stable myopes (SMs) and emmetropes (EMMs). Methods. A total of 41 young (18-27 years) subjects participated in the study (13 PMs, 14 SMs, 14 EMMs). Following a 10 minute near task (4 D) the change in accommodation response back to distance viewing was measured over a two minute time period. Results. Grouped mean data revealed a significant nearwork after-effect in PMs in comparison to SMs and EMMs after 10 seconds (p < 0.01) and 30 seconds (p < 0.01) post-task. Significantly longer time constants were also found in the PMs group. Conclusions. Our results suggest that NITM is manifest during the progressive phase of myopia development.