Premium
Prevalence of myopia in school children in Vanuatu
Author(s) -
Garner Leon F.,
Kinnear Robert F.,
Klinger Jeremy D.,
McKellar Malcolm J.
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
acta ophthalmologica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.534
H-Index - 87
eISSN - 1755-3768
pISSN - 1755-375X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1755-3768.1985.tb06814.x
Subject(s) - refractive error , demography , refraction , optometry , medicine , pediatrics , ophthalmology , eye disease , physics , sociology , optics
The onset of myopia typically occurs in childhood and increases during puberty. We studied the vision and refractive errors of 977 school children (ages 6 to 17 years) in 1983. Myopia in the group was extremely low; 97% had vision of 6/6, and 1.3% had myopia greater than 0.25D. Regression analysis revealed a change in mean refraction of ‐0.016D/year for males and ‐0.024D/ year for females. There were no significant differences between males and females. These children engaged in about 8 hours of school work per day, and we conclude that genetic factors predominate over environmental factors in the determination of myopic refractive errors for this group.