Myopia Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Myopia, including details on treatment, prevention, causes, correction.

The effect of parental history of myopia on eye size of pre-school children: a pilot study.

Fan DS, Lam DS, Wong TY, Islam M, Saw SM, Cheung AY, Chew S

Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Eye Hospital, Kowloon, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China.

PURPOSE: To evaluate parental history of myopia as a predictor of refractive error and eye size in Chinese pre-school children. METHODS: A total of 514 pre-school children (aged 2.3--6.4 years) were examined. Parental history of myopia, amount of near work performed, refractive status and ocular biometry were recorded. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in spherical equivalent refraction (SER) among children with no myopic parents (mean+0.94+/-0.05 D), one myopic parent (mean+0.77+- 0.07 D) and two myopic parents (mean+0.79+/- 0.12 D) (p=0.102) after controlling for age and amount of near work. Further, children with more myopic parents did not have longer eyeballs (p=0.335). Conclusions: In this study in Chinese pre-school children, parental history of myopia was not found to be associated with a myopic refractive error or increased eyeball length. Further studies with larger sample sizes would help to confirm these results.

Published 20 July 2005 in Acta Ophthalmol Scand, 83(4): 492-6.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2004-2008 Myopia Research Today. All Rights Reserved.