purpose: to determine the distribution of very low (up to -1 diopter), low (-1 to -3 d), moderate -3 to -6 d), high (-6 to -10 d), and very high (beyond -10 d) myopia in myopic patients referred to eye clinics of yazd medical university during 2004-2005. methods: this cross-sectional study was performed on 482 myopic patients who underwent dry and cycloplegic refraction by retinoscopy as well a...

In the Annals January 2004 theme issue on Myopia, Park and Congdon 1 have disputed the reality of the increases in prevalence of myopia in East Asia for several reasons. In particular, they criticise the 2 best documented sets of cohort data, from Taiwan 2-6 and Singapore, 7-10 on methodological grounds. In the case of the studies from Taiwan, they argue that there are methodological uncertaint...

Purpose: The prevalence of myopia in school-age children and rural area in Taiwan has increased dramatically. The aim of this study was to explore the associated factors of myopia in rural adolescents. Methods: A cross sectional design with a rural junior high student was invited to participate in this study. The relationship between refraction error (RE), spectacle fitting condition, and ocula...

PURPOSE To assess factors associated with myopia in school children in rural and urban parts of Greater Beijing. METHODS The Beijing Pedriatic Eye Study was a population-based cross-sectional study, in which one school of each level (primary, junior high, senior high) was randomly selected from nine randomly selected districts out of 18 districts of Greater Beijing. The children underwent non...

PURPOSE To determine the prevalence rates of myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism, and anisometropia in a prevalence survey of adults in Sumatra, Indonesia. METHODS A population-based prevalence survey of 1043 adults 21 or more years of age was conducted in five rural villages and one provincial town of the Riau Province, Sumatra, Indonesia. A one-stage household cluster sampling procedure was used...

Purpose Previous research suggests that exposure to pesticides might be associated with human myopia, although data were obtained only from highly exposed individuals. The present study aimed to assess whether exposure to organophosphates and pyrethroids in the United States general population was associated with the prevalence of myopia. Methods Data were obtained from the National Health an...

PURPOSE Time spent outdoors reduces the likelihood that children will develop myopia, possibly because light levels are much higher outdoors than indoors. To test this hypothesis, the effects of high ambient lighting on vision-induced myopia in monkeys were determined. METHODS Monocular form deprivation was imposed on eight infant rhesus monkeys. Throughout the rearing period (23 ± 2 to 132 ±...

Although the findings reported in this letter by Li and Zhang may challenge the conclusions of Zhao et al., who originally identified a possible link between the PRIMPOL geneand high myopia, it is erroneous and misleading to say that ‘‘functional study does not always reveal the truth.’’ In our recent article, we set out to establish if a point mutation (Y89D) in a novel human DNA primase-polym...

PURPOSE The adenosine A(2A) receptor (A(2A)R) modulates collagen synthesis and extracellular matrix production in ocular tissues that contribute to eye growth and the development of myopia. We aimed to determine if single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in A(2A)R exons associates with high myopia found in Chinese subjects. METHODS DNA samples were prepared from venous lymphocytes of 175 Chine...

PURPOSE To determine the prevalence and risk factors for refractive errors in middle-aged to elderly Singaporeans of Indian ethnicity. METHODS A population-based, cross-sectional study of Indians aged over 40 years of age residing in Southwestern Singapore was conducted. An age-stratified (10-year age group) random sampling procedure was performed to select participants. Refraction was determ...