Prevalence of refractive errors in a population of office-workers in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Purpose: To assess the prevalence of refractive errors in a sample of Hispanic adult office-workers in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Methods: Subjects were off ice-workers referred from their respective workplaces for a routine medical exam, enlisted sequentially without selection for refractive error. Each subject received a questionnaire about age of onset of distance-lens use, academic achievement, and family history of myopia. Visual acuity was obtained with an early treatment diabetic retinopathy study (ETDRS) chart for each eye using current spectacle correction to provide refractive error estimate, and subjective refraction with trial lens sets was assessed when 20/25 was not reached. Myopia and hyperopia were defined with a +/- 0.50 diopters criterion. If a subject had previously undergone refractive surgery, the pre-surgical correction was considered the refraction for this study. Results: This study includes 1518 subjects, 25 to 65 years old; 81.9% were male, and mean age was 43.2 +/- 9.8 years. In this sample, 29.2% (95% confidence interval [CI], 26.9-31.5) of subjects were myopes and 18.1% (95% CI, 20.0-16.2) were hyperopes. The median age of first prescription for the myopic group was 20 years. This age of first myopic prescription was negatively correlated with final refractive error (r = -0.46, p < 0.001). Hyperopia was associated with older age (p < 0.001). The mean duration of university study was 5.7 +/- 2.0 years. Logistic regression modeling for refractive error as the dependent variable showed significance for years of university study (p < 0.001) and for parental history of myopia (p < 0.001). Conclusions: The present study shows the prevalence of refractive error and the age of first myopic spectacle prescription in a sample of Hispanic well educated off ice-workers. In this highly educated group, parental history of myopia and years of university education were independently related to myopia.