Myopia search terms analysed

^{Dr Manbir Nagra}

Researchers identified that ‘myopia’ was a more popularly searched term than ‘near’ or ‘shortsighted’, as was ‘myopia control’ over ‘myopia management’.

Lead author and Optician’s clinical editor (optometry), Dr Manbir Nagra, said search data from January 2004 to August 2023 was evaluated to consider how search patterns changed over time.

‘In this study we harnessed the power of Google search trends to gain a better understanding of interest in myopia, myopia control interventions, and in other common refractive errors,’ Dr Nagra said.

Search interest in ‘myopia control’ was relatively higher than for ‘myopia management’ and atropine had the highest relative popularity among interventions.