Prevalence of refractive errors in children of Puerto Rico.

Aim: To determine the prevalence of refractive error in 5- to 17-year-old schoolchildren in Puerto Rico.

Methods: A quantitative descriptive study of 2867 children aged 5 to 17y from all seven educational regions of Puerto Rico was conducted from 2016-2019. Refractive error was determined static and subjective refraction. Children with distance acuity ≤20/40 or near visual acuity ≤20/32 had a cycloplegic refraction. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, correlation coefficient, Kruskal-Wallis, Chi-square, and test calculations.

Results: Twenty percent of the children had a spherical equivalent refractive error ≤ -0.50 D, 3.2% had a spherical equivalent ≥ +2.00 D, and 10.4% had astigmatism ≥1 D. There was a statistically (but non-clinically) significant myopic change in spherical equivalent refractive error with age (<0.001). The prevalence of myopia increased with age (<0.001) but not hyperopia (=0.59) or astigmatism (=0.51). Males had a significantly higher hyperopic spherical equivalent than females (<0.001). Females had a higher prevalence of myopia (<0.001) than males, but there was no difference in the hyperopia (=0.74) or astigmatism prevalence (=0.87).

Conclusion: The prevalence of a spherical equivalent equal to or less than -0.50 D (myopia, 20.7%) is one of the highest among similar-aged children worldwide. Further studies should explore the rate of myopia progression in children in Puerto Rico. Individual children must be monitored to examine the need for treatment of myopia progression.