Refraction and ocular biometric parameters of preschool children in the Beijing whole childhood eye study: the first-year report

BackgroundPrevention of myopia should begin before school age. However, few population-based cohort studies have investigated refractive status in preschool children with cycloplegia. This study aimed to investigate the post-COVID-19 refraction and ocular biometric parameters of preschool children in Beijing Tongzhou District.MethodsA population-based cohort study of kindergarten children in Tongzhou District, Beijing, commenced in November 2021. The present study reports data from the first year of the aforementioned population-based study. We selected children aged 3-6 years from nine kindergartens. Biometric parameters, including axial length (AL), anterior chamber depth (ACD), and corneal radius of curvature (CR), were collected before cycloplegia. Cycloplegic refraction was also measured. The spherical equivalent (SE), lens power (LP), and AL-to-CR ratio were calculated. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to analyse the correlation between refraction and ocular biometric parameters.ResultsA total of 1,505 children completed the examination, and a mean SE of 1.24 & PLUSMN; 0.91 D was found. The overall prevalence of myopia was 1.93%. The mean AL, ACD, CR, LP, and AL-to-CR ratio were 22.24 & PLUSMN; 0.70 mm, 3.28 & PLUSMN; 0.26 mm, 7.77 & PLUSMN; 0.26 mm, 26.01 & PLUSMN; 1.56 D, and 2.86 & PLUSMN; 0.07, respectively. Longer AL, deeper ACD, larger AL-to-CR ratio, and lower LP were associated with older age; the CR was not significantly different among different ages. In the multiple linear regression analysis, after adjusting for sex and age, the model that included AL, CR, and LP explained 87% of the SE variation. No differences were observed in the prevalence of myopia or the SE in this particular age range.ConclusionThe findings of this study suggest that a large proportion of preschool children in Beijing are mildly hyperopic, with a considerably low prevalence of myopia. In preschool children, refractive development was found to present mild hyperopia rather than emmetropia or myopia, a phenomenon that is characteristic of this age range.