Myopia prevalence in a population-based childhood visual impairment study in North India - CHVI-2

• Published in: Indian journal of ophthalmology 2022-03, Vol.70 (3), p.939-943
• Main Authors: Wadhwani, Meenakshi, Vashist, Praveen, Singh, Suraj, Gupta, Vivek, Gupta, Noopur, Saxena, Rohit
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acuity; Adolescent; Age; Age groups; Child; Child, Preschool; Children; Cross-Sectional Studies; Humans; India - epidemiology; Infant; Infant, Newborn; Myopia; Myopia - diagnosis; Myopia - epidemiology; Pediatric research; Population studies; Population-based studies; Prevalence; refractive error; Refractive Errors - epidemiology; Risk factors; Special Focus, Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus, Original; Statistics; Vision Disorders - epidemiology; Vision disorders in children; Vision, Low; Visual acuity; visual impairment
• ISSN: 0301-4738; 1998-3689
• DOI: 10.4103/ijo.IJO_974_21

Purpose: The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of myopia at the community level. Methods: A population-based, cross-sectional study was planned in 40 clusters among children identified with subnormal vision in the urban community of Delhi. House-to-house visits were conducted for visual acuity screening of 20,000 children aged 0-15 years using age appropriate visual acuity charts. All the children with visual acuity of < 6/12 in any eye in the age group between 3 and 15 years and inability to follow light in age group 0-3 years were referred for detailed ophthalmic examination. Results: A total of 13,572 (64.7%) children belonged to the age group of 6-15 years. Of these, a total of 507 (3.7%) were found to be having myopia (spherical equivalent of -0.50 DS or worse in one or both eyes) with positive association with higher age groups. Conclusion: The estimated prevalence of myopia is 3.7%; the proportion of uncorrected myopia was 45%, which reflects that refractive error services need to be improved further.