Participate in research

Our school is at the forefront of research in the fields of optometry and vision science – click any of the research topics below to check out current research participation opportunities.

Balanced movie viewing

Amblyopia or “lazy eye” is a condition that affects about 3% of children. Current treatments are only moderately effective and about half of children treated are left with residual vision problems that cannot be fully corrected with lenses. We want to see if a recently developed binocular-balanced movie-watching treatment can be effective for children (5-15 years) and adults (16+ years) with amblyopia in one eye.  This treatment aims to encourage the brain to use information from the two eyes together by blurring the image shown to the better-seeing eye.

Can glasses alone improve vision in older children and adults with anisometropic amblyopia?

This study aims to investigate how best to help older children (12-15 years) and adults (16-40 years) with anisometropic amblyopia who are not currently wearing lenses to adapt to wearing glasses. This study involves wearing standard prescription glasses and attending seven visits at the Grafton Campus, University of Auckland, across a six month period. If eligible, you/your child will receive new glasses funded by the study. We will ask you/your child to wear the glasses every day, for as much of the day as possible, and to attend vision checks every 6 weeks (up to 24 weeks).

 

How much can castor oil improve dry eye and eyelash crusting?

We are looking for research participants to help us find out if a castor oil preparation applied around the eyelids can improve symptoms of dry eye by improving tear film and ocular surface quality. Eligible participants will be randomised to apply either castor oil or a control solution to the skin, close to the eyelids, twice daily. The total duration of the trial is 6 months, with a total of 5 visits for a duration of up to 1 hour each where we will measure various aspects of your ocular surface. If you have symptoms or a previous diagnosis of blepharitis or dry eye disease, you may be eligible to participate. Click here for full details.