Офтальмохирургия (Jan 2017)
AGE-RELATED CHANGES IN REFRACTION AND ACCOMMODATION IN JUNIOR SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN
Abstract
The myopia incidence in children and teenagers for the last 10 years increased by 1.5 times, the most widely spread it received among graduates of lyceums and gymnasiums (50%).Purpose. To reveal the dynamics of changes in refraction, accommodation and viscoelastic properties of the cornea in schoolchildren within 3 years.Material and methods. The dynamics of myopia progression was investigated in 323 children (182 children with emmetropia and 141 – with myopia). The examined children were divided into 2 groups: the group 1 included children with emmetropia; the group 2 – children with mild to moderate myopia (mean spherical equivalent: -1.65±1.07D) aged from 7 to 12 years (mean age: 8.52±1.00). The period of follow-up was 3 years. The study carried out an estimation of axial length (AL), refraction, accommodation.Results. During 3 year follow-up the axial length steadily increased: within the first year – most intensively in the group 2, in the second and third years – in both groups. In the examination of refraction of the eye a gradual increase in the quantity of myopic children was noted in the group 1 with the initial emmetropia, reaching to the end of the 3rd year 82 children (34.7%). During the study, lower indices of reserve of relative accommodation were detected in the group 2 that remained during the entire period of follow-up.Conclusions. 1. Children with myopia have lower reserves of relative accommodation compared with healthy pupils. 2. Children with myopia have a higher gradient of AL growth compared with children of the same age group with the initial emmetropia. 3. The increase of myopia in 8-year schoolchildren is related to the intensive visual load, provoking habituallyexcessive accommodation tension.
