title: Astigmatism in children: changes in axis and amount from birth to six years.
abstract: Noncycloplegic refractions of 1,000 children aged 0-6 years revealed a high incidence of astigmatism, especially in the first 2 years of life. Before age 41/2 years, most of the astigmatism was against-the-rule and after that age most was with-the-rule. Of 19 children who did not show astigmatism in the first year, only one acquired it by 4 years. Of 29 children who had large amounts of astigmatism in the first year, all showed elimination or a large reduction in the amount of the cylindrical error by 4 years. These results are relevant to the etiology of astigmatism.
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D001251:Astigmatism / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D012029:Refraction, Ocular; D014785:Vision, Ocular / Q000502:physiology