Part-time use of 1% atropine eye drops for prevention of myopia progression in children

To determine the effectiveness of atropine 1% administered once, twice and thrice per week.

Retrospective review of 166 cases in a tertiary eye hospital.

In total, 166 patients started atropine 1% at different frequencies (once, twice and thrice per week) between January 2003 and August 2013 were identified. All patients had at least 15 months of follow-up. There was no significant difference in mean spherical equivalent (SE) (p = 0.341), age (p = 0.699), gender (p = 0.815) and ethnicity (p = 0.922) among the three groups at baseline. Patients were reviewed at 3, 9 and 15 months. Over a 15-month period, the mean change in SE was 0.26 ± 0.70 D, 0.51 ± 0.70 D and 0.46 ± 0.76 D in the patients started on once, twice and thrice per week, respectively (p = 0.342). Further analysis was performed by dividing patients into three groups of different changes in SE at the 15-month mark—≤ 0.5 D, between 0.5 D and 1.0 D and > 1.0 D. Groups with less myopic progression at the 15-month mark (< 0.5 and 0.5 to 1.0 D groups) were more myopic, − 5.32 D ± 1.88 and − 5.21 D ± 1.76, respectively, compared to − 4.13 D ± 2.05 in the > 1.0 D group. Multivariate linear regression analysis confirmed this relationship (p = 0.005), after adjusting for age, gender, ethnicity and frequency of dose.

Part-time use of atropine 1% provides an alternative regimen of treating patients with myopia and can have a lower side effect profile compared to daily doses of atropine.