The myopia incidence in children and teenagers for the last 10 years increased by 1.5 times, the most widely spread it received among graduates of lyceums and gymnasiums (50%).Purpose. To reveal the dynamics of changes in refraction, accommodation and viscoelastic properties of the cornea in schoolchildren within 3 years.Material and methods. The dynamics of myopia progression was investigated in 323 children (182 children with emmetropia and 141 – with myopia). The examined children were divided into 2 groups: the group 1 included children with emmetropia; the group 2 – children with mild to moderate myopia (mean spherical equivalent: -1.65±1.07D) aged from 7 to 12 years (mean age: 8.52±1.00). The period of follow-up was 3 years. The study carried out an estimation of axial length (AL), refraction, accommodation.Results. During 3 year follow-up the axial length steadily increased: within the first year – most intensively in the group 2, in the second and third years – in both groups. In the examination of refraction of the eye a gradual increase in the quantity of myopic children was noted in the group 1 with the initial emmetropia, reaching to the end of the 3rd year 82 children (34.7%). During the study, lower indices of reserve of relative accommodation were detected in the group 2 that remained during the entire period of follow-up.Conclusions. 1. Children with myopia have lower reserves of relative accommodation compared with healthy pupils. 2. Children with myopia have a higher gradient of AL growth compared with children of the same age group with the initial emmetropia. 3. The increase of myopia in 8-year schoolchildren is related to the intensive visual load, provoking habituallyexcessive accommodation tension
