Contact Lenses Improve Self-Esteem Of Myopic Children

Many people decide to replace their glasses with contact lenses in order to boost their self-esteem and confidence. It seems that this strategy works, judging by the findings of researchers from New York-based Stony Brook University School of Medicine. Among the children who participated in the study, those who wore contact lenses to correct their myopia (near-sightedness) had higher self-esteem than their peers who wore glasses.

The research team evaluated the self-esteem of 423 children aged between 12 and 17, using standardised tests for the assessment. These children had enlisted as participants in the Correction of Myopia Evaluation Trial (COMET) six years earlier. Five years after entering the trial, the children were allowed to choose whether to continue wearing glasses or switch to contact lenses.

Aside from applying standardised self-esteem tests, the researchers also assessed self-reported measures of self-esteem in areas such as academic and athletic competence, looks, social acceptance, behavioural conduct and general feelings of self-worth. The results showed that five years of contact lens wearing had led to higher social acceptance, as well as improved athletic competence and behavioural conduct in comparison to the scores obtained from children wearing glasses.

In the concluding part of their report, which was published in the Ophthalmic & Physiological Optics journal, the researcher said that myopic children who had worn glasses for five years and then switched to contact lenses benefited from improved self-esteem. It appears that self-esteem plays a part in the choice of contact lenses over glasses and the change is in turn linked to improved self-esteem among the children who are likely to make the switch, the report said.