Abstract
Purpose :
Myopia is the most common cause of visual impairment worldwide. This retrospective chart review study aimed to determine the rate of myopia progression for patients seen at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC). The secondary aim was to identify correlation between rate of myopia progression and median household income.
Methods :
A billing list was queried for patients seen at CCHMC through May 2018 with a diagnosis of myopia or progressive myopia. Patients had a minimum of 3 visits with a myopic spherical equivalent (SE) refractive error, no history of myopia control, and no concurrent diagnoses known to cause or affect myopia. Patients were categorized into quintile groups based on median household income per home zip code for the greater Cincinnati area. The average overall rate of progression was calculated for each patient. Kruskal-Wallis test and ANOVA were used for analysis.
Results :
Of the 199 patients that met inclusion, 45.7% were male with median age 6.8 years. Average overall rate of SE myopia progression annually was -0.42±0.45 diopters (D) for the right eye (OD) and -0.38±0.39 D for the left eye (OS). Less than one-third of patients progressed more than -0.50 D annually (30.5% for OD and 32.5% for OS). There were 4.5%, 15.1%, 56.8%, and 23.6% from families living in zip codes with median income ranges of the <20th, 20 to <40th, 40 to <60th, 60 percentile respectively. The median baseline refractive error at the first visit was not significantly different among the income groups at -1.00 D OD (p=0.89) and -0.81 D OS (p=0.80). There was no significant difference in the rate of SE myopia progression among income groups, however the lowest income group showed the lowest progression with -0.29 ±0.30 D OD and -0.31±0.28 D OS.
Conclusions :
In this cohort, pediatric patients in the Greater Cincinnati Area showed a slower rate of progression compared to previous reports. There was no significant difference in the rate of progression of myopia among median income groups, although the lowest income percentile showed the lowest amount of progression. A larger sample size distributed between all income groups is needed for further analysis.
This abstract was presented at the 2019 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Vancouver, Canada, April 28 - May 2, 2019.