J Korean Ophthalmol Soc.  2019 Dec;60(12):1263-1268. 10.3341/jkos.2019.60.12.1263.

Analysis on Transitional Change of Refractive Error Distributions in Pediatric Population Using KNHANES

• Lim SH
• Lim HT
• Kim DH

• KMID: 2466180
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3341/jkos.2019.60.12.1263

Abstract

PURPOSE
To investigate transitional changes in refractive error distributions in a pediatric population using the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) data.
METHODS
We investigated 7,181 subjects from the 4th and 5th (2008-2012) KNHANES and 1,225 subjects from the 7th (2016) KNHANES; all subjects were 5 to 18 years of age. We used the average spherical equivalent (SE) of both eyes calculated with noncycloplegic refractive errors measured via autorefractor. We determined SE percentiles by age in order from hyperopia to myopia. We acquired the mean SE by age. We investigated the proportions of subjects with mild, moderate, and severe refractive errors by age.
RESULTS
Mean refractive errors were −1.73 ± 2.16 diopters in subjects in the 4th and 5th KNHANES and −1.66 ± 2.21 diopters in subjects in the 7th KNHANES; these were not significantly different between the two groups (p = 0.071). Mean refractive errors were more myopic in subjects in the 4th and 5th than in subjects in the 7th KNHANES only at 8 and 9 years of age (p = 0.018, p = 0.026). The distribution of percentiles by age was similar between the two groups. The respective proportions of hyperopia, emmetropia, and myopia were 6.2%, 27.6%, and 66.2% in subjects in the 4th and 5th survey, and 7.3%, 29.7% and 63.0% in subjects in the 7th survey. There was no significant difference in refractive error proportion between the 2 groups (p = 0.326).
CONCLUSIONS
There was no definite transitional change of refractive error distributions between the two KNHANES groups. However, additional periodic surveys are needed to confirm this hypothesis.

Keyword

Childhood; KNHANES; Myopia; Prevalence; Refractive error

MeSH Terms

Emmetropia
Hyperopia
Myopia
Nutrition Surveys
Prevalence
Refractive Errors*

Figure

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  Figure 1 Comparison of mean spherical equivalents (SE) of subjects between group 1 (2008-2012 data, dashed line) and group 2 (2016 data, solid line) according to age (inverted Y-axis). Thick line showed mean SE of both eyes. p-value signified statistical significance when comparing mean SE of both eyes between group 1 and 2 (Mann-Whitney U test).

• 

  Figure 2 Comparison of 5, 50 and 95 percentiles of the mean spherical equivalents of both eyes between group 1 (2008–2012 data, dashed line) and group 2 (2016 data, solid line) by age in the order from hyperopia to myopia (inverted Y-axis). Similar distributions were noted between 2 groups.

• 

  Figure 3 Comparison of proportion of the subjects with mild, moderate and severe refractive errors between group 1 (2008–2012 data, left) and group 2 (2016 data, right) by age. The proportions were similar between 2 groups.

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