Abstract
Purpose :
To investigate the prevalence and body mass index of congenital lower epiblepharon in Chinese school–age children, and the difference in the refractive errors between epiblepharon and the normal children.
Methods :
Cross-sectional study. A total of 28225 children aged 6∼12 years were screened for congenital epiblepharon. All children underwent examinations including visual acuity examination, slit lamp examination of external eyes, severity classification of epiblepharon, screening of strabismus, refraction examination, weight and height. The prevalence of lower epiblepharon in school–age children was evaluated and its association with age, sex, BMI and refractive errors was analyzed.
Results :
Of 28225 children examined 564 had epiblepharon. The incidence of the epiblepharon decreased with age: 2.50% at ages 6 year, 2.13% at age 7 years, 2.10% at ages 8, 1.97% at ages 9, 1.85% at ages 10, 1.67% at ages 11, and 1.19% at ages 12. The difference was statistically significant. The BMI of children with epiblepharon aged 6∼12 years were higher than the overweight diagnostic threshold in China, and the differences were statistically significant between 6∼11 years old. The prevalence and degree of astigmatism of children with epiblepharon was higher than normal children. And there may had an association between the severity of astigmatism and severity of epiblepharon.
Conclusions :
The prevalence of the epiblepharon decreased with age. Children with epiblepharon are mostly overweight. The epiblepharon have a correlation with astigmatism, espeacially in higher astigmatism.
This abstract was presented at the 2024 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, WA, May 5-9, 2024.