Aberrations of emmetropic subjects at different ages

Abstract

We made on-axis aberrations and horizontal peripheral refraction measurements of emmetropic subjects (spherical equivalent -0.88D to +0.75D) aged between 19 and 70 years. We found smaller changes in on-axis aberrations with age than has previously been reported, possibly because of the small refractive error range of our subject group. Higher order root-mean-squared aberrations increased by 26% across the age range (5 mm pupils), with significant age related changes in 4th- and 6th-order aberrations. The only aberration co-efficient to change significantly was horizontal coma co-efficient C(3, 1). Several aberration co-efficients were significantly different from zero across the group of subjects. The only changes in peripheral refraction with increase in age were shifts in the turning points of the spherical equivalent and horizontal/vertical astigmatism towards less temporal visual field angles.