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. 2017 Nov 9;12(11):e0187396.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0187396. eCollection 2017.

High myopia in Greater Beijing School Children in 2016

Yin Guo  1   2 , Jia Li Duan  3 , Li Juan Liu  2 , Ying Sun  3 , Ping Tang  1 , Yan Yun Lv  1 , Liang Xu  2 , Jost B Jonas  4
Affiliations

High myopia in Greater Beijing School Children in 2016

Yin Guo et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Purpose: To assess prevalence and associated factors of myopia and high myopia in schoolchildren in Greater Beijing.

Methods: The school-based, cross-sectional Greater Beijing School Children Myopia study was carried out in the year 2016 in 54 schools randomly selected from 15 districts in Beijing. Non-cycloplegic auto-refractometry of the right eyes was performed.

Results: The study included 35,745 (99.4%) out of 35,968 eligible pupils with a mean age of 12.6±3.4 years (range 6-18 years). Prevalence of myopia defined as myopic refractive error of ≥-0.50 diopters (D),≥-1D,≥-6D,≥-8D and ≥-10D was 70.9%(95% confidence intervals (CI):70.5,71.4), 60.9% (95%CI:60.4,61.4), 8.6%(95%CI:8.4,8.9), 2.2%(95%CI:2.0,2.4), and 0.3% (95%CI:0.3,0.4), respectively. The frequency of high myopia (≥-6D, ≥-8D, ≥-10D) increased from 1.5% (95%CI:1.0,2.0), 0.4% (95%CI:0.1,0.6) and 0.1% (95%CI:0.00,0.02), respectively in 10-year-olds to 19.4% (95%CI:17.3,21.6), 5.2% (95%CI:4.0,6.4) and 0.9% (95%CI:0.4,1.5), respectively, in 18-year-olds. Mean refractive error in the 18-year-olds was -3.74±2.56D (median:-3.63D;range:-19.6D to + 6.25D). Higher prevalence of high myopia (≥-6D and ≥-8D) was correlated (all P<0.001) with older age (OR:1.18, and 1.15, respectively), female gender (OR: 1.44 and 1.40, respectively), higher body mass index (OR: 1.02 and 1.03, respectively), taller body height (OR: 1.03 and 1.02, respectively), urban region of habitation (OR: 1.26 and 1.33, respectively) and higher school type (OR:1.57 and 2.22, respectively). Prevalence of severe high myopia (≥-10D) was associated only with older age (P<0.001; OR: 1.44; 95%CI: 1.31, 1.59) but not with any education-related parameter such as higher school type (P = 0.48), urban region of habitation (P = 0.07) or female gender (P = 0.37).

Conclusion: In this most recent survey, prevalence of high myopia (≥-6D:19.4%;≥-8D:5.2%;≥-10D:0.9%) in 18-year-old school children was higher than in previous surveys from mainland China. In contrast to minor high myopia and moderate high myopia (defined as myopic refractive error of <-10D), severe high myopia (myopic refractive error ≥-10D) was not strongly correlated with educational parameters.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: Jost B. Jonas is Consultant for Mundipharma Co. (Cambridge, UK); Patent holder with Biocompatibles UK Ltd. (Franham, Surrey, UK) (Title: Treatment of eye diseases using encapsulated cells encoding and secreting neuroprotective factor and / or antiangiogenic factor; Patent number: 20120263794), and patent application with University of Heidelberg (Heidelberg, Germany) (Title: Agents for use in the therapeutic or prophylactic treatment of myopia or hyperopia; Europäische Patentanmeldung 15 000 771.4). All other authors declare no competing interests. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials (as detailed online in the guide for authors http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/competinginterests).

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Diagram showing the prevalence of minor high myopia (myopic refractive error ≥-6.00 diopters) in the Greater Beijing School Children Myopia Study 2016.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Diagram showing the prevalence of moderate high myopia (myopic refractive error ≥-8.00 diopters) in the Greater Beijing School Children Myopia Study 2016.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Diagram showing the prevalence of severe high myopia (myopic refractive error ≥-10.00 diopters) in the Greater Beijing School Children Myopia Study 2016.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Histogram showing the distribution of refractive error in the 18year-olds in the Greater Beijing School Children Myopia Study 2016.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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