A University of Oklahoma College of Medicine study presented at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) conference in May 2026 has provided new insights into the cause and potential treatment of progressive myopia. This project investigated whether systemic inflammation could contribute to the development and progression of childhood myopia, and whether treatment with systemic anti-inflammatory medications might alter normal refractive development.
Myopia is an increasingly common cause of vision impairment worldwide, with early-onset disease associated with a greater lifetime risk of serious ocular complications, including retinal detachment, glaucoma, and myopic maculopathy. Although low-dose atropine is currently used to slow myopia progression, its mechanism of action and long-term efficacy remain uncertain, highlighting the need to better understand the biological pathways that regulate eye growth.
Based on previous experimental studies demonstrating that inflammatory mediators are involved in ocular growth regulation, the investigators hypothesized that chronic systemic inflammation promotes myopia and that anti-inflammatory therapy may reduce this effect. To test their hypothesis, the investigators performed a retrospective chart review of patients aged 0-22 years evaluated at the University of Oklahoma (OU) Health Dean McGee Eye Institute and OU Health Children’s Physicians between 1997 and 2025. Three groups were compared: children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) or other chronic inflammatory diseases receiving systemic anti-inflammatory medications; children with similar inflammatory conditions who were not receiving treatment; and age- and sex-matched control patients without inflammatory disease. Refractive development was assessed using cycloplegic refractions, and refractive error was analyzed as both spherical power and spherical equivalent. Clinical data were de-identified, managed in REDCap, and analyzed using regression models and appropriate statistical tests.
The results demonstrated a strong association between inflammatory status, treatment, and refractive development. Children nine years and younger with untreated JIA were significantly more myopic than control subjects and children receiving systemic anti-inflammatory therapy, whereas patients aged 10-22 who received systemic anti-inflammatory therapy were significantly less myopic and, on average, more hyperopic than untreated control patients and untreated JIA patients. Regression analyses further showed that patients receiving systemic anti-inflammatory therapy experienced a substantially slower rate of myopia progression (0.12 D/year) and a markedly delayed onset of myopia (17.51 years) compared with control subjects (0.23 D/year and 10.19 years, respectively). These findings support the hypothesis that inflammatory mediators contribute to scleral remodeling and ocular elongation during refractive development and suggest that suppressing inflammation may reduce or delay myopia progression.
This preliminary study provides clinical evidence linking systemic inflammation with refractive development and identifies anti-inflammatory therapy as a potential strategy for slowing childhood myopia. The investigators acknowledge limitations, including the retrospective design, lack of family history and medication dosage information, and possible referral bias. Future multi-center studies and complementary animal experiments are planned to validate these findings, define the inflammatory pathways regulating ocular growth, and identify the most effective anti-inflammatory therapies for preventing or slowing myopia progression in children.
