The Treatment of Myopia and Refractive Errors in Children

Dear Colleagues,

Refractive error is the inability of the eye to properly focus light onto the retina, resulting in blurred vision, and this can be classified into myopia (short-sightedness), hyperopia (long-sightedness), and astigmatism. Refractive errors are typically corrected by wearing glasses or contact lenses, or through refractive surgery to improve visual clarity. Uncorrected refractive error in children can cause reduced vision, difficulties with how the eyes work together, and poor near focusing, and, as a result, can lead to reduced academic performance and behavioural issues.  Therefore, parents, educators, and health professionals need to be aware of potential signs of uncorrected refractive error to ensure the correction of these through timely eye examinations in order to support children’s development and overall well-being. 

In recent years, the prevalence of myopic refractive error has increased, most likely caused by changes in children’s visual environments, with children spending much less time outdoors and more time in intense learning environments and viewing digital devices.  Myopia results from the eyeball growing longer and at a rate faster than normal eye growth. While the vision defect caused by myopia is easily correctable, the elongation and stretching of the eye are associated with an increased risk of future sight-threatening pathology. Therefore, the increasing prevalence of myopia is a significant public health concern.  Recent developments in spectacle and contact lenses that help to slow down myopia progression have received significant research interest and show promise in curtailing this looming epidemic.   

This Special Issue invites the contribution of original articles, systematic evaluations, and analyses on myopia and refractive error treatment in children. We welcome your valuable contributions.

Dr. Sara Jayne McCullough
Dr. Lesley Doyle
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Children is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• refractive error
• paediatric vision
• visual development
• hyperopia
• astigmatism
• myopia
• myopia control
• pre-myopia