title: [Refractive errors as causes of visual impairment in children from public schools of the Botucatu region - SP].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the refractive errors as cause of visual impairment in school children from the Botucatu region.
  
  
  METHODS
  A sectional study was conducted evaluating preschool and elementary school students, according to gender, refractive error, visual acuity and treatment.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Four thousand six hundred and twenty-three (4,623) children were submitted to visual acuity evaluation and 8.1% of them were submitted to complete ocular examination. There were 63.2% hyperopic astigmatism, 15.7% myopic astigmatism, 12.5% astigmatism, 4.9% hyperopia and 3.7% myopia. Corrective lenses were prescribed for 48.7% of the evaluated children.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The most frequent refractive error was hyperopic astigmatism and 50% of the children received treatment. The frequency of refractive errors was 3.9% of the studied population.
authors.affiliation: Universidade Estadual Paulista 'Julio de Mesquita Filho', Botucatu, SP, Brasil.
authors.forename: Claudia Akemi Shiratori de
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Oliveira
authors.forename: Kenia Scrocaro
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Hisatomi
authors.forename: Cristiano Pinheiro
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Leite
authors.forename: Silvana Artioli
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Schellini
authors.forename: Carlos Roberto
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Padovani
authors.forename: Carlos Roberto Pereira
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Padovani
mesh_terms: D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D012030:Refractive Errors / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014792:Visual Acuity; D019987:Persons with Visual Disabilities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*