This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Prevalence of pediatric refractive errors varies with ethnicity
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
The prevalence of refractive errors varies among ethnic groups, researchers have found. Even after controlling for age and sex, significant differences in baseline prevalence of refractive error were found among ethnic groups in a multicenter study.
Members of the Collaborative Longitudinal Evaluation of Ethnicity and Refractive Error Study Group have reported the baseline findings of a longitudinal, observational study of refractive error and ocular development in children in four ethnic groups.
The study population consisted of 2,523 children, of whom 534 were African American, 491 were Asian, 463 were Hispanic and 1,035 were white, ranging in age from 5 to 17. Myopia was defined as –0.75 D or more and hyperopia as +1.25 D or more in each principal meridian. Astigmatism was defined as at least a 1 D difference between the two principal meridians.
More children had astigmatism than other refractive errors. Overall, 28.4% of the children were astigmatic, 9.2% were myopic and 12.8% were hyperopic.
After controlling for age and gender, significant differences in prevalence of refractive errors as a function of ethnicity were found. Asians had the highest prevalence of myopia (19.5%), followed by Hispanics (13.2%). Whites had a myopic prevalence of 4.4%, and African Americans had a prevalence of myopia of 6.6%. Whites had the highest prevalence of hyperopia, at 19.3%, followed by Hispanics (12.7%). Asians and blacks had similarly low prevalences of hyperopia, at 6.3% and 6.4%, respectively.
Asians had the highest prevalence of astigmatism, at 33.6%, followed by Hispanics at 36.9%. African Americans had the lowest prevalence of astigmatism, at 20%; whites had a 26.4% prevalence of astigmatism.
The study is published in the August issue of Archives of Ophthalmology.