Qian Deng-Juan, Hu Min, Zhong Hua, Nie Qiao, Li Jun, Yuan Yuansheng, Pan Chen-Wei
School of Public Health, Medical College of Soochow University, Suzhou, China.
Department of Ophthalmology, the Second People's Hospital of Yunnan Province, Kunming, China.
Optom Vis Sci. 2017 Dec;94(12):1153-1158. doi: 10.1097/OPX.0000000000001141.
Data regarding the epidemiology of reduced visual acuity (VA) among multiethnic children and adolescents in China are few. Understanding the vision-related health inequalities among different ethnic groups is crucial for health resource allocations and clinical managements for eye diseases.
We aim to determine the prevalence, main causes, and health inequalities of reduced VA in multiethnic school students in rural China.
A school-based eye survey including 7681 multiethnic school students aged 5 to 16 years in the southwestern part of China was conducted. Detailed ocular examinations including VA measurements, ocular motility evaluations, bilateral postcycloplegic refractions, and the assessments of the external eye, anterior segment, media, and retinal fundus were carried out by trained research vision professionals. Visual acuity was measured using a logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution E-chart, and reduced VA was defined as a presenting VA of worse than 20/40. Concentration index was initiatively utilized to measure health inequalities among different ethnic groups.
The prevalence of reduced VA was 11.4 per 100 children (95% confidence interval, 10.7 to 12.1%) based on the worse-seeing eye data. The prevalence of reduced VA increased with increasing age (P < .001 for trend) and was higher among girls compared with boys (P < .0001). Uncorrected refractive error was the principal cause for reduced VA, which accounted for 87.3% of the participants with reduced VA. The concentration index for reduced VA was 0.07 among different ethnic groups.
Compared with the estimates reported from previous studies on Chinese children and adolescents, a relatively lower prevalence of reduced VA was observed among multiethnic school students in rural China. Ethnic variations and health inequalities of reduced VA were not significant in this study.
关于中国多民族儿童和青少年视力下降（VA）流行病学的数据很少。了解不同民族之间与视力相关的健康不平等对于眼科疾病的卫生资源分配和临床管理至关重要。
我们旨在确定中国农村多民族在校学生视力下降的患病率、主要原因和健康不平等情况。
在中国西南部对7681名5至16岁的多民族在校学生进行了一项基于学校的眼部调查。由经过培训的研究视力专业人员进行详细的眼部检查，包括视力测量、眼球运动评估、双眼睫状肌麻痹验光以及对眼外部、眼前段、眼介质和视网膜眼底的评估。使用最小分辨角对数视力表（E字表）测量视力，视力下降定义为当前视力低于20/40。主动利用集中指数来衡量不同民族之间的健康不平等情况。
根据视力较差眼的数据，视力下降的患病率为每100名儿童中有11.4例（95%置信区间，10.7%至12.1%）。视力下降的患病率随年龄增长而增加（趋势P <.001），女孩高于男孩（P <.0001）。未矫正屈光不正为视力下降的主要原因，占视力下降参与者的87.3%。不同民族之间视力下降的集中指数为0.07。
与先前关于中国儿童和青少年的研究报告估计值相比，中国农村多民族在校学生中视力下降的患病率相对较低。本研究中视力下降的民族差异和健康不平等不显著。
