Prevalence of myopia among urban and suburban school children in Tamil Nadu, South India: findings from the Sankara Nethralaya Tamil Nadu Essilor Myopia (STEM) Study.
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| Title: | Prevalence of myopia among urban and suburban school children in Tamil Nadu, South India: findings from the Sankara Nethralaya Tamil Nadu Essilor Myopia (STEM) Study. |
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| Authors: | Gopalakrishnan, Aparna (AUTHOR), Hussaindeen, Jameel Rizwana (AUTHOR), Sivaraman, Viswanathan (AUTHOR), Swaminathan, Meenakshi (AUTHOR), Wong, Yee Ling (AUTHOR), Armitage, James A (AUTHOR), Gentle, Alex (AUTHOR), Backhouse, Simon (AUTHOR) |
| Source: | Ophthalmic & Physiological Optics. Mar2022, Vol. 42 Issue 2, p345-357. 13p. 1 Diagram, 3 Charts, 2 Graphs. |
| Subjects: | School children, Myopia, Urban schools, Refractive errors, Vision testing |
| Geographic Terms: | Tamil Nadu (India), India |
| Abstract: | Purpose: To report the baseline prevalence of myopia among school children in Tamil Nadu, South India from a prospective cohort study. Methods: Children between the ages of 5 and 16 years from 11 schools in two districts of Tamil Nadu underwent vision screening. All children underwent visual acuity assessment using a Pocket Vision Screener followed by non‐cycloplegic open‐field autorefraction (Grand Seiko WAM‐5500). Myopia was defined as a spherical equivalent (SE) refraction of ≤−0.75 D and high myopia was defined as SE ≤ −6.00 D. Distribution of refraction, biometry and factors associated with prevalence of myopia were the outcome measures. Results: A total of 14,699 children completed vision screening, with 2% (357) of them having ocular abnormalities other than refractive errors or poor vision despite spectacle correction. The remaining 14,342 children (7557 boys; 52.69%) had a mean age of 10.2 (Standard Deviation [SD] 2.8) years. A total of 2502 had myopia in at least one eye, a prevalence of 17.5% (95% CI: 14.7–20.5%), and 74 (0.5%; 95% CI: 0.3–0.9%) had high myopia. Myopia prevalence increased with age (p < 0.001), but sex was not associated with myopia prevalence (p = 0.24). Mean axial length (AL; 23.08 (SD = 0.91) mm) and mean anterior chamber depth (ACD; 3.45 (SD = 0.27) mm) positively correlated with age (p < 0.001). The mean flat (K1; 43.37 (SD = 1.49) D) and steep (K2; 44.50 (SD = 1.58) D) corneal curvatures showed negative correlation with age (p = 0.02 and p < 0.001, respectively). In the multivariable logistic regression, older age and urban school location had higher odds for prevalence of myopia. Conclusion: The baseline prevalence of myopia among 5‐ to 16‐year‐old children in South India is larger than that found in previous studies, indicating that myopia is becoming a major public health problem in this country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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| Database: | Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection |
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| Abstract: | Purpose: To report the baseline prevalence of myopia among school children in Tamil Nadu, South India from a prospective cohort study. Methods: Children between the ages of 5 and 16 years from 11 schools in two districts of Tamil Nadu underwent vision screening. All children underwent visual acuity assessment using a Pocket Vision Screener followed by non‐cycloplegic open‐field autorefraction (Grand Seiko WAM‐5500). Myopia was defined as a spherical equivalent (SE) refraction of ≤−0.75 D and high myopia was defined as SE ≤ −6.00 D. Distribution of refraction, biometry and factors associated with prevalence of myopia were the outcome measures. Results: A total of 14,699 children completed vision screening, with 2% (357) of them having ocular abnormalities other than refractive errors or poor vision despite spectacle correction. The remaining 14,342 children (7557 boys; 52.69%) had a mean age of 10.2 (Standard Deviation [SD] 2.8) years. A total of 2502 had myopia in at least one eye, a prevalence of 17.5% (95% CI: 14.7–20.5%), and 74 (0.5%; 95% CI: 0.3–0.9%) had high myopia. Myopia prevalence increased with age (p < 0.001), but sex was not associated with myopia prevalence (p = 0.24). Mean axial length (AL; 23.08 (SD = 0.91) mm) and mean anterior chamber depth (ACD; 3.45 (SD = 0.27) mm) positively correlated with age (p < 0.001). The mean flat (K1; 43.37 (SD = 1.49) D) and steep (K2; 44.50 (SD = 1.58) D) corneal curvatures showed negative correlation with age (p = 0.02 and p < 0.001, respectively). In the multivariable logistic regression, older age and urban school location had higher odds for prevalence of myopia. Conclusion: The baseline prevalence of myopia among 5‐ to 16‐year‐old children in South India is larger than that found in previous studies, indicating that myopia is becoming a major public health problem in this country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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| ISSN: | 02755408 |
| DOI: | 10.1111/opo.12943 |
