Effect of outdoors activities measured by biomarker CUVAF in a cohort of 2616 children (7-12 years old) of Madrid.

Abstract

Purpose : Compare ultraviolet conjunctival autofluorescence area (CUVAF) in a scholar cohort of 2616 children with and without myopia; validating its usefulness as a biomarker of protection against risk of childhood myopia associated to outdoors activities. As a secondary objective, to check the correlation between the outdoor activities, CUVAF and other associated variables.

Methods : Case-control study in a cohort of children aged 7 and 12 years (second and sixty course of primary education), in which is found and compares the conjunctival autofluorescence area (CUVAF) between myopic and non-myopic groups. The participants were volunteers from 39 schools in Madrid. All participants underwent an automatic objective refraction, axial length measurement, color fundus photographs, and CUVAF area (BAF module on the Heidelberg Spectralis HRA + OCT). All the participants filled out a questionnaire of life style and myopia history. For all statistical analyses, corrected p values p=0.05 (two-tailed) were considered statistically significant using SPSS 20.1 and Graphpad Softwares.

Results : A total of 2616 children were recruited (1234 of 7 years old and 1382 of 12 years old), 305 were myopic and 2184 non-myopic controls. The CUVAF area of the control group was significantly higher than that of the myopic children (p<0.05). The percentage of CUVAF areas of zero was significantly higher in myopes than in controls, specifically in myopia grade 2 and high myopia groups compared control group (p<0.05) with a significative correlation between CUVAF area and SE (p<0.05). There were significant different in SE, outdoors activities and CUVAF area (p<0.05) in different type of school (public, concertate and private).

Conclusions : In conclusion, the validity of the CUVAF as a biomarker in children aged 7 and 12 years was confirmed, finding an inversely proportional relationship between the CUVAF and myopia. The CUVAF may become a more reliable method for assessing outdoor activities than questionnaires.

This abstract was presented at the 2024 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, WA, May 5-9, 2024.