Abstract
Abstract: :
/>Purpose:To assess prevalence of myopia among first year medical students at the Faculty of Medicine, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway and compare it to prevalence level in general population in the same area. Methods: The refraction of 76 (78% of all) first year medical students (43 females, 33 males, mean age 21 years) was examined with autorefractor (Nikon NR 5500). The same method was used previously to examine 1248 subjects (age 20–25 years, 533 men and 715 women) from the general population in a health study. In the student group, biometrical eye parameters were measured with both laser interferometry (IOL Master) and applanation ultrasonography(OcuScan). Results:Prevalence of myopia (SE > –0.5D; right eye) was 63.9% among the students compared to 35.0% in general population. The mean equivalent sphere (SE) among the myopic students was –2.62 ±2.03D. Axial length (AL) measured with laser was significantly higher than that with ultrasound (mean difference 0.23 ±0.18 mm, right eye). AL was significantly longer in myopic eyes than non–myopic eyes for both techniques (p=0.00). The two biometry methods were highly correlated (r= 0.989, p<0.00). Conclusions: In Norway, the prevalence of myopia among medical students is nearly twice as high as in general population. It is, however, lower than that reported for medical students from East Asia. Laser interferometry provides highly reproducible results for biometric measurements in refractive studies.
Keywords: myopia • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: prevalence/incidence • refraction