Do long-sighted children need to wear glasses?

In this blog, Salma Ahmad and Catherine Suttle address some questions about whether long-sighted children need to wear glasses, with the help of recent Cochrane evidence.

Page last checked 26 June 2023

Take-home points

There is a need to avoid unnecessarily treating long-sight in children due to cost to parents and the impact wearing glasses may have on children. A Cochrane Review shows there is continued uncertainty about whether wearing glasses helps prevent a squint in long-sighted children. In the absence of reliable evidence about the effectiveness of wearing glasses, decisions about using them should take into account factors such as the child’s level of vision or presence of a squint or symptoms with and without glasses.

Harry Potter and Spongebob Squarepants do not seem to have much in common, but they are both young and wear glasses. Harry’s seem to be worn full time, but for Spongebob only when jellyfishing. Do they really need them? What would happen if they discarded them? Would their vision suffer, would their quality of life be affected? Are more jellyfish caught with than without glasses?

Despite their imaginary nature, these are real questions, serious ones. Do children benefit from wearing glasses? Are vision and wellbeing better in children who wear their glasses than in those who do not? Perhaps there is little benefit or even harms (for example, glasses cost money, and once they are bought the child needs to be encouraged to wear them; this cost and effort may be difficult for many parents or carers). These questions have been addressed in several ways by researchers looking at the effect of wearing glasses on outcomes such as visual acuity (clearness of vision) and squint (or eye turn, also termed strabismus).

Long-sight in children

The long-sighted (hyperopic) eye focuses light towards a point too far, behind the eye. A long-sighted child can focus the light, without help from glasses, back onto the retina to allow clear vision. Due to a link between focusing and eye position (when we look at close objects our eyes turn in), young children who are long-sighted are at risk of an eye turning in toward their nose (a squint).

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Long-sighted children can focus the light, without help from glasses, back onto the retina to allow clear vision.

If the child is unable to focus the light entirely, the child may develop ‘lazy eye’, otherwise known as amblyopia. In this case, the visual system undergoes abnormal development such that vision is reduced in one or (rarely) both eyes and cannot be easily improved with glasses. This condition occurs in about 2% of people globally (Fu et al., 2019), and we are susceptible to it only in childhood, so it is very important to understand the effectiveness of glasses in the correction of vision and squint in children.

New Cochrane evidence on long-sighted children wearing glasses to prevent a squint

This issue was addressed recently by an updated Cochrane ReviewSpectacle correction versus no spectacles for prevention of strabismus in hyperopic children (published April 2020), comparing wearing glasses with not wearing them for preventing a squint in long-sighted children. They looked for randomized controlled trials to find out whether glasses prevented a squint in these children, but they also included results on other outcomes.

The review authors searched for studies published from January 1946 to 4th December 2018 and found four eligible studies. Three of these were conducted in the UK, and one was conducted in the US.

So, what did they find?

The combined results of the four studies showed that the risk of developing a squint may be reduced by about one third in long-sighted children up to three years of age wearing glasses, compared to those without glasses. However, one of the studies found there may be little or no difference between those with and without glasses at the follow-up after three years, suggesting that if there is a benefit, it may not be sustained. The same study looked at other outcomes, including amblyopia and found there may be little or no difference between the two groups, but the evidence is very uncertain.

Overall, the studies did not find that children wearing glasses could see better than those without glasses, probably because of their high ability to focus (mentioned above).

Another important outcome reported in the review was ‘emmetropization’, a normal developmental process in which refractive error, such as long-sightedness, reduces over the first few years of life. We expect babies to be long-sighted and for this to reduce as they go through their early years. Again, this is normal and expected. If we ‘correct’ this (creating an abnormal situation), it is possible that the developmental process will be affected, and the long-sightedness may not reduce as it should. This important possibility was also investigated as part of the review; three studies reported on this outcome, but their results were not in agreement.

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“We expect babies to be long-sighted and for this to reduce as they go through their early years.”

A risky business…

Overall, critical appraisal of the four included studies showed that none of them provided highly reliable research results. The studies were at ‘high risk of bias’, meaning that their methods did not include several measures that are designed to reduce biased results. For example, none of the four studies included ‘masking’ of the research team; if the researchers are aware which child is in which group in the trial, they may anticipate specific findings leading to biased results.

The bottom line: do long-sighted children need glasses?

The review authors suggest that further research is required, with better study methods before the effects of wearing glasses in long-sighted children and their risk of developing a squint can be estimated with any certainty.

In the absence of clear evidence, discussions between parents or carers of long-sighted children and their eye care provider may include several issues related to the need for, and the likely benefits of, wearing glasses. For example, is the child’s vision with and without glasses normal for their age? Is there a squint with or without glasses? If vision is normal and there is no squint without glasses, what is the likely benefit of wearing them? Patient-centred, informed decisions can then be made based on the best available evidence.

Dr Catherine Suttle
Dr Catherine Suttle is a senior lecturer in Optometry and Visual Science at City, University of London and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Join in the conversation on Twitter with @CochraneUK, @CochraneEyes #eehealthchoices or leave a comment on the blog. Please note, we cannot give medical advice and we will not publish comments that link to commercial sites or appear to endorse commercial products.

References (pdf)

Salma Ahmad and Catherine Suttle have nothing to disclose.



Do long-sighted children need to wear glasses? by Salma Ahmad

is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

6 Comments on this post

  1. Hi Jan,
    Thanks for your question.
    At the age of 3 years, having some form of long-sightedness is entirely normal. However, sometimes it can be linked with observations which the practitioner may have made during your grandson’s eye examination. It would be a good idea for his parents to ask the practitioner the following questions:
    1. Is the level of vision in each eye normal for his age?
    2. Is the extent of long-sightedness normal for his age?
    3. Do the glasses improve the level of vision?
    4. Do the glasses help to improve another aspect of vision or eye health?
    These questions should open up a useful discussion between the parents and the practitioner. We hope that the answers will help to address any concerns.
    Kind regards,
    Salma and Catherine

    Salma Ahmad / Reply
    • Hello,
      My 9 yr old son has recently been given a +4 prescription for long sightedness after his first ever visit to the opticians. He has never had any vision complaints/problems highlighted either by himself or noticed by us (parents/grandparents), teachers or any other healthcare professionals. He (son) decided he might need glasses as a friend recently got them and told him he’d found reading music better with them. As the prescription is so strong he can’t stand to wear them and has said they make things much harder to see. What is the point of him wearing them if he wasn’t struggling? And will his sight worsen if he doesn’t wear them? Thanks for your advice.

      Miss Sally Hicks / (in reply to Salma Ahmad) Reply
      • Thank you, Miss Hicks, for your question. Whether a child needs spectacles or not can be based on various things. Things to discuss with the opticians would be:
        a) what is your sons’ levels of vision without being corrected with the +4.00D prescription?
        b) How well do the eyes work together as a team?
        c) How well your son can “accommodate”?
        In addition, a discussion with the optician as to when your son has been recommended to wear the spectacle.
        Were drops put into the child’s eyes during the eye examination to measure the prescription?
        A child’s visual system can cope with certain levels of long-sightedness, and this needs to be discussed with the optician as the whether your child needs spectacles or not or if the prescription needs to be modified.
        Whether the sight will worsen wearing the spectacles or not depends on the level of vision without any spectacle correction, the child’s ability to “accommodate”, and how the eye muscles work. This should easily be answered by your optician.

        Kind regards
        Salma

        Salma Wilson / (in reply to Miss Sally Hicks) Reply
  2. My grandson who is 4 in February 2021 has just been diagnosed with long sightedness following a routine. We have not noticed a problem in his vision. My daughter was given a prescription for glasses but we are very hesitant to put him in glasses so young. Please can you advise or give your opinion.
    Thank you
    Jan Breese
    janbreese@hotmail.com

    Jan Breese / Reply
    • Hi, can you help please. My wee boy has just turned 2 and suffers from nystagmus. However he has just had eye test carried out and been told he is long sighted +5 in one eye and +6 in the other. I never had any issues with his vision at all, he can see the tiniest things close and up far away. I am very reluctant to put glasses on him at this very young age. I’ve been reading that long sightedness in children can improve on its own. I really believe he is too young just now to wear them. Can you please advise or give your opinion. Thanks
      Claire

      Claire McKenna / (in reply to Jan Breese) Reply
      • Hello Claire, you may find it helpful to see the bloggers’ response to a previous question by Jan Breese, which includes questions that may be helpful to ask the practitioner.
        Best wishes
        Sarah Chapman [Editor]

        Sarah Chapman / (in reply to Claire McKenna) Reply

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