Abstract
Purpose: :
To determine age- and ethnicity-related hyperopia prevalence in African-American and Hispanic children between 6 and 72 months of age.
Methods: :
A population-based cohort of children 6-72 months of age underwent Retinomax autorefraction 30 to 60 minutes after cycloplegia with 2 drops of 1% cyclopentolate 5 minutes apart (0.5% for children <=12 months of age). If drops were refused, noncycloplegic retinoscopy was performed, and if Retinomax readings had a confidence interval <8, cycloplegic retinoscopy was performed. The eye with the greater absolute value spherical equivalent (SE) refractive error was analyzed.
Results: :
2993 African-American and 3024 Hispanic children underwent refraction. Overall, 26.8% of Hispanic children had >=2 D SE hyperopia. Prevalence was 34.9%, 22.5%, 24.5%, 29.5%, 26.0%, and 27.2% in children aged 6-11,12-23, 24-35, 36-47, 48-59, and 60-72 months, respectively. There was no significant trend toward increasing or decreasing prevalence with age (p=0.75, trend test). Among African-American children, prevalence was 18.1%, 20.2%, 18.4%, 20.7%, 23.9%, and 21.9% for the same age categories, with a trend toward increasing prevalence with age (p=0.047, trend test); overall, 20.8% were hyperopic. The stable or increasing prevalence of hyperopia with age, especially after one year of age, was robust to varying definitions of hyperopia (>=1D, >=3D) in both ethnic groups. Overall, hyperopia >=2D was significantly more common in Hispanic children than in African-American children (p<0.0001; logistic regression adjusting for age). Hyperopia remained more common in Hispanics when defined as >=1D or as >=3D. There was no difference in hyperopia prevalence between male children and female children of either ethnicity (p>=0.38; logistic regression adjusting for age).
Conclusions: :
Hyperopia is more common in Hispanic than in African-American preschool children. The prevalence of hyperopia shows little if any tendency to decrease with increasing age, especially after a year of age, in either population. This indicates that significant levels of hyperopia that are still present after infancy may be likely to persist throughout the preschool years.
Keywords: hyperopia • refractive error development • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: prevalence/incidence