Epidemiologic study of anisometropia in students of Natal, Brazil

• Autor(a) principal: Garcia,Carlos Alexandre de Amorim
• Data de Publicação: 2005
• Outros Autores: Dantas,Erymar de Araújo, Souza,Araken Britto de, Uchoa,Raquel Araújo Costa, Oréfice,Fernando
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Arquivos brasileiros de oftalmologia (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0004-27492005000100013
• topic: Anisometropia/epidemiology; Amblyopia; Students; Refractive errors; Strabismus

PURPOSE: To perform an epidemiologic study in students in Natal/Brazil, with relation to refractional anisometropia, evaluating criteria such as: gender, age, and association with strabismus and amblyopia. METHODS: A study of 1,024 students randomly selected from several districts of Natal/Brazil was undertaken by the Department of Ophthalmology of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), observing the following criteria of > 2 spherical or cylindrical diopter refractional anisometropia relating it to sex, age, association with strabismus, amblyopia and anisometropia classification. RESULTS: We found a prevalence of 2% (N=21) anisometropia in the students. The female gender predominated with 81% (N=17). In students with anisometropia, we observed an association with strabismus in 9.5% of cases (N=2), both with exotropia. The association of anisometropia with amblyopia occurred in 47.6% of the cases (N=10), with 8 cases of unilateral amblyopia and 2 cases of bilateral amblyopia. CONCLUSIONS: There was a predominance of anisometropia in females, and an increased prevalence of strabismus and amblyopia in students with anisometropia.