Monochromatic aberrations in hyperopic and emmetropic children

We investigated differences in higher order monochromatic aberrations between hyperopic and emmetropic eyes from two large cohorts (mostly 6 and 12 year old) of Caucasian children. Additionally, we investigated the differences of higher order monochromatic aberrations between age groups. In both cohorts, hyperopic eyes had significantly higher levels of positive spherical aberration (SA) and higher orders (HO) RMS than emmetropic eyes. Higher levels of positive SA were also found in the older cohort (irrespectively of the refractive error) although this difference was statistically significant only for emmetropic, low hyperopic and moderate hyperopic eyes. The observed higher levels of positive SA found in hyperopic eyes could explain for the previously reported differences in accommodative responses between hyperopic and non-hyperopic eyes. Our results provide some evidence of a relationship between ocular changes that typically occur during eye growth and the observed levels of higher order aberrations in children eyes.