Abstract
Purpose :
The prevalence of myopia is expected be multiplied by 2 between 2000 and 2050. The aim of the study was to collect data on the prevalence of myopia in children in France.
Methods :
Myopia was defined as a spherical equivalent of less than or equal -0.50 diopters.
This study includes data collected between 2013 and 2018 in 696 opticians. The optical correction, sex and age were collected.
Prevalence was estimated from the raw data and corrected to take into account the market share of the optician group. This was reported to the French population by age group.
Results :
Data from 613,306 children (0-17 years old) were analyzed. The average age was 11 years (56.45% of girls). The average spherical equivalent was comprised between -0.3 and -0.4 diopters. The overall prevalence of myopia was 23.74%. The prevalences of low (-0.5 to -2.9 D), moderate (-3 to -5.9), high (between -6 and -9.9 D) and very high myopia (- 10D or less) were of 18.88%, 5.45%, 1.13%, and 0.17%, respectively.
The estimated number of myopic children equals 23.74% in this French dataset. Any interpretation and comparison to general population must be cautious because of the source of these data.
Conclusions :
This is the first French epidemiological study on myopia in children with a large sample size. After correction for recruitment biais, this study seems to confirm the relative increase of myopia among children.
This is a 2020 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.