Huo Lu, Jia Xinyu, Li Chunmei
Tianjin Women's and Children's Health Center, TianJin, China.
Tianjin Women's and Children's Health Center, TianJin, China.
J Optom. 2025 May 17;18(3):100559. doi: 10.1016/j.optom.2025.100559.
Preterm birth is associated with an increased risk of abnormal refractive development, even without retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). This study aimed to evaluate the differences in refractive error between preterm infants without ROP and full-term infants, as well as to assess the relationship between physical parameters at birth and refractive status in preterm infants.
A total of 1205 infants aged 1-18 months participated in this cross-sectional study conducted at Tianjin Women's and Children's Health Center in China from March 2020 to September 2023. Following One-to-one propensity score matching (PSM), 230 pairs of infants were included. Refraction was examined by cycloplegic refraction, and the mean spherical equivalent (MSE) of both eyes was analyzed. A simple linear regression model was employed to determine the relationships between refractive state and gestational age (GA), birth weight (BW), and birth length (BL) in preterm infants.
Among the 1205 infants, 230 were preterm infants without ROP, and 975 were full-term infants. After PSM, the MSE of preterm infants was lower than that of full-term infants during every period (t = -0.320, P = 0.749). Compared with full-term infants, preterm infants exhibited a significantly higher prevalence of refractive error (P = 0.014), particularly astigmatism (P = 0.040). Although the difference in myopia between the two groups was not significant (P = 0.500), preterm infants had more frequent emmetropia than full-term infants across all stages (P = 0.037). In addition, MSE was negatively correlated with both BW and BL (R = 0.260, P < 0.001; R = 0.035, P = 0.004); however, there was no correlation between MSE and GA (R = 0.048, P = 0.051).
Compared to full-term infants, preterm infants without ROP exhibit lower MSE values and a higher prevalence of refractive errors, particularly astigmatism, and a trend towards developing myopia was observed during early life. BW can be utilized as a parameter to predict the early refractive status of these preterm infants.
早产与屈光发育异常风险增加相关，即使没有早产儿视网膜病变（ROP）。本研究旨在评估无ROP的早产儿与足月儿之间屈光不正的差异，并评估早产儿出生时身体参数与屈光状态之间的关系。
2020年3月至2023年9月在中国天津市妇女儿童保健中心进行的这项横断面研究共纳入1205名1至18个月大的婴儿。经过一对一倾向得分匹配（PSM）后，纳入230对婴儿。通过睫状肌麻痹验光检查屈光情况，并分析双眼的平均球镜当量（MSE）。采用简单线性回归模型确定早产儿屈光状态与胎龄（GA）、出生体重（BW）和出生身长（BL）之间的关系。
在1205名婴儿中，230名是无ROP的早产儿，975名是足月儿。PSM后，早产儿在各阶段的MSE均低于足月儿（t = -0.320，P = 0.749）。与足月儿相比，早产儿屈光不正患病率显著更高（P = 0.014），尤其是散光（P = 0.040）。虽然两组近视差异不显著（P = 0.500），但早产儿在所有阶段正视眼比足月儿更常见（P = 0.037）。此外，MSE与BW和BL均呈负相关（R = 0.260，P < 0.001；R = 0.035，P = 0.004）；然而，MSE与GA之间无相关性（R = 0.048，P = 0.051）。
与足月儿相比，无ROP的早产儿MSE值较低，屈光不正患病率较高，尤其是散光，且在生命早期观察到有近视发展趋势。BW可作为预测这些早产儿早期屈光状态的一个参数。
