Abstract
Purpose :
To investigate the prevalence of myopia and to analyze the distribution of astigmatism in an adult population in Germany
Methods :
The refractive error of both eyes was assessed in 655 adults (123 males, 515 females) with an average age of 41 years (SD: ± 6.2 years, range: 25-72 years) using non-cyclopleged wavefront-based autorefraction (ZEISS i.Profiler plus, Carl Zeiss Vision GmbH, Aalen, Germany) during a routine examination at the Leipzig Research Centre for Civilization Diseases (LIFE). LIFE CHILD is a population-based, prospective, observational single-center study that investigates the development of children and adolescents in Germany. As part of this examination, parents of the participants underwent a standardized protocol including questionnaires and wavefront-based autorefraction measurement. Spherocylindrical errors of the eye (sphere and astigmatism) were calculated from the lower order aberrations (Z2,0;Z2,2; Z2,-2) for a pupil diameter of 3mm for the right eye of the participants. Myopia and astigmatism were defined as an objective measurement ≤ -0.5D, high myopia was defined as a refractive error ≤-5D.
Results :
Myopia was prevalent in 278 of the participants (42.4%), with a mean error of -2.62 (SD ± 2.49D). Analysis of age revealed a similar prevalence between younger adults (20-40 years, prevalence: 21.5%) and older participants (40-60 years, prevalence: 20.9%). High myopic refractive errors were found in 13.3% of the myopes (average: -7.41 ± 3.04D, range: -5D to -21D). The average astigmatic refractive error in the whole study group was -1.36 D (SD ± 0.82D) and astigmatism had a prevalence of 55%. Astigmatism ≥ -1D had the highest prevalence (82.4%), astigmatic refractive errors ≤ -1D were present in 11.2% and of ≤ -2D were found in 6.2% of the participants.
Conclusions :
Myopia affected 42% of the study sample and this prevalence is higher compared to already published reports on the prevalence of myopia in adults in Europe and this could be due to the higher number of females that took part in study, as it is known that the prevalence of myopia is higher in females compared to males. High myopic refractive errors were less prevalent compared to other studies. Prevalence of astigmatism was comparable to other study cohorts.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.