The purpose of this study is to assess the safety and efficacy of low level red light therapy in myopia control in African, Hispanic, and Caucasian children. This is a prospective, multi-ethnic, parallel-controlled randomized trial that will enroll myopic children aged 8-13 years old as subjects. On top of wearing single vision spectacles, subjects in the intervention group will receive treatment twice a day from Monday to Friday, with each treatment lasting for 3 minutes at a minimal interval of 4 hours. Subjects in the control group will wear single vision spectacles. The study will evaluate axial elongation, cycloplegic spherical equivalent change, changes in other biological parameters (except axial length), and uncorrected and best corrected visual acuity of the two groups of subjects at 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months after enrollment. The study plans to conduct an interim analysis at a three-month follow-up. The enrollment target is 90 participants: 30 Hispanic Children (15 control and 15 treatment) , 30 African Children (15 control and 15 treatment), and 30 Caucasian Children (15 control and 15 treatment).
Low-level red-light technology provides a new and innovative myopia control approach. This strategy enables relatively high energies of light to be delivered at much shorter durations of exposure to induce the myopia control effect. The efficacy of the low-level red-light technology has been proven in a Chinese population. This trial demonstrated that 3-minutes per session twice a day repeated low-level red-light treatment controlled 87.7% of refraction progression and 76.8% of axial length elongation when the time of compliance to the treatment was 75%. Repeating this RCT in culturally diverse groups will confirm and translate this technology into a solution for myopia control globally.