A research of infant refraction in Kunming Municipality

Objective To study the infant refraction, detect ametropia in mass screening refraction and correct the ametropia properly for the treatment and prevention of amblyopia and strabismus as early as possible. Methods The refraction status of 1 146 children (2 291 eyes, aged 1 month 3 years) were determined with retinoscopy after tropicamide cycloplegia. Results The results of statistics showed that 89 eyes (3 88%) had emmetropia, 2 139 eyes (93 37%) hypermetropia, 38 eyes (1 66%) myopia, 560 eyes (24 44%) astigmatism and 25 eyes (1 09%) mixed astigmatism In cases with ametropia, most of them were mild, and 97 eyes (4 23%) were moderate and severe Anisometropia occurred in 34 infants (2 97%), and 7 infants (11 eyes, 0 48%) had strabismus The degree of hypermetropia decreased with the increase of age The percentage of astigmatism decreased with the age increase (χ 2=7 46, P 0 01), and the degree of astigmatism also decreased with the age increase (χ 2=26 1l, P 0 01). Myopia increased with the age increase (χ 2=4 06, P 0 05). Conclusions The prevention of amblyopia and strabismus in children should begin at the infant period, and the cases with moderate and severe ametropia should wear eye glasses as early as possible.