Original ArticleVisual Acuity and the Causes of Visual Loss in a Population-Based Sample of 6-Year-Old Australian Children
Section snippets
Population
The Sydney Myopia Study is a population-based survey of refraction and other eye conditions in a sample of 6- and 12-year-old school children residing in the Sydney metropolitan area. Methods used to identify and select the target sample, as well as a description of this sample and study procedures, were recently reported.10 The study area was stratified by socioeconomic status (SES), using Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2001 national census data. These data were used to select 34
Subjects
Of 2238 eligible children, 1765 (78.9%) children were given parental permission to participate, and questionnaire data were provided by parents. Of the 1765 children with a positive response, 24 were not examined, because they were absent from school during the examination period, and 1 9-year-old child was excluded from the analyses. The mean age of participants was 6.7 years (range, 5.5–8.4 years); 49.4% of children were female and 50.6% were male. Most (70.4%) were 6 years old, whereas a
Discussion
There are no universally accepted standards for visual acuity tests or norms in young children. Study results also differ, depending on whether an isolated or a surrounded optotype is used.2, 12 This report provides norms of distance linear visual acuity for 6- (and 7-) year-old children in a predominantly Caucasian sample. The mean visual acuity of children without ametropia in our sample was 50.1 letters (0.1 logMAR or 20/25 Snellen acuity). This is in close agreement with the value of 0.07
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Manuscript no. 2004-316.
Supported by the National Health & Medical Research Council, Canberra, Australia (grant no.: 253732); the Westmead Millennium Institute, University of Sydney; and the Vision Cooperative Research Centre, Sydney, Australia.