Abstract
Abstract: :
Purpose: Accommodative effort has been implicated in a model of myopia development (Hung & Ciuffreda, 1999). The present study was developed to search for a possible relationship between the presence of myopia in children and their performance in the accommodative facility test. This test is simple to perform in the clinic and could distinguish myopic children from the rest. Besides, nutrition has been discussed as a risk factor for myopia (Edwards, 1996). In this study, sugar consumption was measured. Methods: Children were selected from consecutive Caucasian outpatients who came to a private practice office for their routine vision examination accompanied by one or both parents. Forty-eight non-myopic children (31 girls and 17 boys) and thirty-six myopic children (22 girls and 14 boys) were included. A questionnaire filled by the parents was used to determine family history of myopia, time spent on nearwork activities and sugar consumption. The ophthalmologic examination included refraction, near and distance phoria, and binocular dynamic accommodative facility measurement (with a +2 / -2 diopters flipper test at 35 cm). Inclusion criteria were absence of ocular pathology like strabismus or cataract, astigmatism smaller than 1 diopter in either eye, absence of anisometropia and absence of amblyopia. Results: Presence of myopia was significantly associated with family history (p < 0.0118), and with total amount of nearwork time (p < 0.013). The association between presence of myopia and specific nearwork tasks only achieved significance for hours spent reading (p < 0.013), and was not significant for watching TV (p < 0.799) or using computers (p < 0.89). We found no difference in the accommodative facility test results between the myopic and the non-myopic groups (p < 0.65). Also, no difference was found in the amount of sugar consumption of the two groups (p < 0.41). Conclusions: We confirm previously described association of myopia with parental history and reading habits. No association was found between myopia and the accommodative facility test or the sugar consumption of the children.
Keywords: accommodation • myopia • nutritional factors