title: Prevalence of myopia in school children in Vanuatu.
abstract: The onset of myopia typically occurs in childhood and increases during puberty. We studied the vision and refractive errors of 977 school children (ages 6 to 17 years) in 1983. Myopia in the group was extremely low; 97% had vision of 6/6, and 1.3% had myopia greater than 0.25D. Regression analysis revealed a change in mean refraction of -0.016D/year for males and -0.024D/year for females. There were no significant differences between males and females. These children engaged in about 8 hours of school work per day, and we conclude that genetic factors predominate over environmental factors in the determination of myopic refractive errors for this group.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D044383:Black People; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009216:Myopia / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics*; D009514:Vanuatu; D014785:Vision, Ocular / Q000502:physiology