Five-year Follow-up of Refractive Error and Visual Acuity in Preschool Children

Lee, Su Na; Rhee, Kang Oh; Kim, Chang Sik; Lee, Tae Young

Abstract

PURPOSE
The purpose of this study is to evaluate visual acuity and refractive state in preschool children and to find the environmental factors that cause visual acuity and refractive change. METHODS: The initial subjects were 3, 225 preschool children, aged 4 to 6 years old, selected randomly from 15 preschools in Daejeon from August to November, 1997. Among them, 759 (23.5%) children showed 0.6 or less visual acuity or had different visual acuity of more than 2 lines between two eyes. In addition, 537 (70.8%) children who did not showed organic ocular abnormality during the first examination received refraction. Five years later, 120 (22.3%) children were reexamined and enrolled in this study. RESULTS: Uncorrected visual acuity was 0.44 (log MAR -0.36 +/- 0.27) and corrected visual acuity was 0.85 (logMAR -0.07 +/- 0.09) on average in 1997. Generally there was a myopic shift by -1.30 +/- 1.16 diopter (D) for 5 years (p<0.001) and astigmatism was significantly decreased by 0.32 +/- 0.48 D in the hyperopic group (p<0.001). The amount of myopic shift was lower in the children who were wearing eyeglasses than in those who were not in the hyperopic group (p<0.05). Corrected visual acuity was significantly increased by 0.13 (logMAR 0.06 +/- 0.08, p<0.001). The degree of myopic shift was larger in the children whose parents were wearing eyeglasses than in those whose parents were not wearing eyeglasses (p<0.05) but other environmental factors did not influence on visual acuity or refractive change. CONCLUSIONS: Early examination of visual acuity and refractive state, and adequate treatment are important to increase visual function in preschool children.