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The Xichang Pediatric Refractive Error Study Report 3

Nathan Congdon, MD, MPH; Mingwei Zheng, BS; Abhishek Sharma, MBBS; Kai Choi, PhD; Yue Song, MD, PhD; Mingzhi Zhang, MD; Mingfei Wang, BS; Zhongxia Zhou, MD; Liping Li, PhD; Xueyu Liu, MPH; Xiaojian Liu, MPH; Dennis S. C. Lam, MBBS, MD, FRCOphth

Arch Ophthalmol. 2008;126(12):1717-1723.

Objective  To study spectacle wear among rural Chinese children.

Methods  Visual acuity, refraction, spectacle wear, and visual function were measured.

Results  Among 1892 subjects (84.7% of the sample), the mean (SD) age was 14.7 (0.8) years. Among 948 children (50.1%) potentially benefiting from spectacle wear, 368 (38.8%) did not own them. Among 580 children owning spectacles, 17.9% did not wear them at school. Among 476 children wearing spectacles, 25.0% had prescriptions that could not improve their visual acuity to better than 6/12. Therefore, 62.3% (591 of 948) of children needing spectacles did not benefit from appropriate correction. Children not owning and not wearing spectacles had better self-reported visual function but worse visual acuity at initial examination than children wearing spectacles and had a mean (SD) refractive error of –2.06 (1.15) diopter (D) and –2.78 (1.32) D, respectively. Girls (P < .001) and older children (P = .03) were more likely to be wearing their spectacles. A common reason for nonwear (17.0%) was the belief that spectacles weaken the eyes. Among children without spectacles, 79.3% said their families would pay for them (mean, US $15).

Conclusions  Although half of the children could benefit from spectacle wear, 62.3% were not wearing appropriate correction. These children have significant uncorrected refractive errors. There is potential to support programs through spectacle sales.

Author Affiliations: Joint Shantou International Eye Center of Shantou University and Chinese University of Hong Kong (Drs Congdon, Song, Zhang, Zhou, and Lam and Mss Zheng and Wang) and Shantou University School of Public Health (Dr Li and Mss Xueyu Liu and Xiaojian Liu), Shantou, People's Republic of China; Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science (Drs Congdon, Sharma, and Lam) and Center for Epidemiology and Biostatistics (Dr Choi), Chinese University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong; and Department of Public Health, Oxford University, Oxford, England (Dr Sharma). Ms Zheng is now with the Department of Ophthalmology, Jilin University, Jilin, China.

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Associations Between Near Work, Outdoor Activity, and Myopia Among Adolescent Students in Rural China: The Xichang Pediatric Refractive Error Study Report No. 2
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Arch Ophthalmol 2009;127:769-775.
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