Refractive error, axial length, and height as a function of age in young myopes.

Classical studies suggest that growth of the eye as assessed by axial elongation ceases by 13 years of age. The subjects in these studies were mostly emmetropes. In contrast, the childhood progression of myopia continues to the middle to late teenage years. We collected cross-sectional data on refractive error, axial length, and height. Analysis of these data based on a linear regression model suggests that axial elongation continues later in myopes than the classical studies suggest. The age of cessation of axial elongation in myopes was earlier in females than in males. For both sexes, the ages of axial elongation cessation in myopes were similar to the ages of cessation of increases in height.