Abstract
Purpose :
The COVID-19 pandemic posed great challenges to vision and eye health worldwide, especially in young children.We performed a cross-sectional study to examine the difference between cycloplegic and non-cycloplegic refraction and the prevalence of pseudomyopia in preschool children during the outbreak of COVID-19 .
Methods :
In this study, students from 6 kindergartens in the Tongzhou District of Beijing, China, were enrolled. A 5-minute interval of two drops of 1% cyclopentolate and one drop of tropicamide resulted in cycloplegia. Refractive error was measured under both non-cycloplegic and cycloplegic conditions with autorefraction.The difference between non-cycloplegic and cycloplegic spherical equivalent refractive (SER) error and pseudomyopia prevalence were analyzed.Pseudomyopia was defined as SER ≤−0.50D before cycloplegia and ＞−0.50 D after cycloplegia.
Results :
Among the 1515 children enrolled, 1473(97.23%) completed all of the procedures.The average age was 4.56±0.82 years.700（47.52%）children were girls.The median cycloplegic SE was1.18±1.05 D,The mean difference in SE between non-cycloplegic and cycloplegic measurements was 1.2± 0.75D (P＜0.001). Significantly greater differences were observed in hypermetropes than myopes (1.45 ± 0.93 D versus 0.32± 0.48D, p < 0.001).The prevalence of myopia, emmetropia and hyperopia with and without cycloplegia was (3.61% vs12.37 %), (11.72% vs44.82 %) and (84.67% vs42.81%), respectively. Pseudomyopia prevalence was 26.57 % .
Conclusions :
Cycloplegic refraction is more sensitive than a non-cycloplegic one for measuring refractive error in preschool children. Pseudomyopia is prevalent in preschool children during the COVID-19 outbreak period. Our study indicates the possibility that cycloplegic refraction should be performed in preschool children routinely.
This abstract was presented at the 2023 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans, LA, April 23-27, 2023.