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Direction of refractive shift changes over time
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MADISON, Wis. — Significant changes in spherical equivalent occur in adults over a long term, according to 10-year results of a study here. Younger people in the Beaver Dam Eye Study became more hyperopic, and older people became more myopic.
Researchers with the community-based study analyzed refractive data from 2,937 people examined at baseline, 5 years and 10 years later. At baseline, participants ranged in age from 43 to 84.
Spherical equivalent became more positive in the youngest subjects and more negative in the oldest. Ten-year refractive change was +0.48 D in people between the ages of 43 and 59, +0.03 D in people between 60 and 69 years of age and -0.19 D in people older than 70.
Severity of nuclear sclerosis was also strongly related to amount of change, with more negative change in those with higher degrees of nuclear sclerosis at baseline. The amount of change was also found to be related to diabetes and weakly related to baseline refractive error, but unrelated to gender.
The study is published in Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science.