Abstract
Purpose :
Multiple studies have investigated the mechanisms of infant adaptation to visual stimulus as well as the residuals of developmental misadaptation in adults. Considerably less is known about the respective dissemination of factors and dynamics in juvenile populations. The purpose of this study was to assess the occurrence of stereo deficiency and its determinants in adolescents and young adults.
Methods :
Routine eye examination data of 224,604 military recruits aged 17 to 21 yrs were retrospectively assessed and analyzed using standard statistical software. Data were assigned to either stereonormal or stereo-deficient individuals and substratified by grade of stereopsis. Presumed determinants were adressed on three levels (low, moderate, high) and included myopia (≤ -0.5; < -2.0; < -5.0 D), hyperopia (≥ +0.5; > +2.0; > +5.0 D), astigmatism (≥ 0.5; ≥ 2.0; > 3.0 D), anisometropia (≤ 1; ≤ 2; >3 D), amblyopia (BCVA <1.0; <0.6; ≤0.2), and residual strabism. For each subset, logistic regression was performed using iterative log-likelihood approximation for calculation of odds ratios (OR) and confidence intervalls (0,95 CI).
Results :
A total of 20,762 cases of stereo deficiency was identified relating to 9.2% of the population analyzed in this study. Of these, 26.8% displayed myopia, 13.8% hyperopia, and 23.8% astigmatism. Correctable refraction error was present in 46.6% of cases, as compared to 29.7% in stereonormal individuals. Rates of uncorrectable refractive error increased dependent on the extent of stereo deficiency, with the left eye persistently displaying amblyopia at rates 1-2% higher than the right eye. Risk factor analysis identified strabism (OR 26.8 [0.95 CI: 25.2; 28.5]) and high hyperopia (OR 10.3 [0.95 CI: 8.9; 11.9]) being the predominant determinants, while interaction with anisometropia (OR 3.75 [3.57; 3.94]), astigmatism (OR 2.45 [2.38; 2.53]), and myopia (OR 1.21 [1.18; 1.24]) was much less pronounced (p<0.0001).
Conclusions :
Our results might be useful in bridging the gap between pediatric and adult-related research in developmental ophthalmology. Given the hyperdominance of motor deficiency and the over-representation of left eye visual deficiency found in this study, we hypothesize that the adaptive expression of higher binocular functions such as depth perception and ocular rivalry may not be fully understood.
This is a 2021 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.