Abstract
To assess the distribution of axial length as surrogate for myopia and its determinants in an old population, we performed the Ural Very Old Study as a population-based cohort study. Out of 1882 eligible individuals aged 85 + years, the Ural Very Old Study performed in an urban and rural region in Bashkortostan/Russia included 1526 (81.1%) individuals undergoing ophthalmological and medical examinations with sonographic axial length measurement. Biometric data were available for 717 (47.0%) individuals with a mean age of 88.0 ± 2.6 years (range 85–98 years; 25%). Mean axial length was 23.1 ± 1.1 mm (range 19.37–28.89 mm). Prevalences of moderate myopia (axial length 24.5–< 26.5 mm) and high myopia (axial length ≥ 26.5 mm) were 47/717 (6.6%; 95% CI 4.7, 8.4) and 10/717 (1.4%; 95% CI 0.5, 2.3), respectively. In multivariable analysis, longer axial length was associated (coefficient of determination r2 0.25) with taller body height (standardized regression coefficient beta:0.16;non-standardized regression coefficient B: 0.02; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.01, 0.03; P < 0.001), higher level of education (beta: 0.12; B: 0.07; 95% CI 0.02, 0.11; P = 0.002), and lower corneal refractive power (beta: − 0.35; B: − 0.23; 95% CI − 0.28, − 0.18; P < 0.001). Higher prevalence of moderate myopia, however not of high myopia, was associated with higher educational level (OR 1.39; 95% CI 1.09, 1.68; P = 0.007) and lower corneal refractive power (OR 0.77; 95% CI 0.63, 0.94; P = 0.01). In this old study population, prevalence of moderate axial myopia (6.6% versus 9.7%) was lower than, and prevalence of high axial myopia (1.4% versus 1.4%) was similar as, in a corresponding study on a younger population from the same Russian region. Both myopia prevalence rates were higher than in rural Central India (1.5% and 0.4%, respectively). As in other, younger, populations, axial length and moderate myopia prevalence increased with higher educational level, while high myopia prevalence was independent of the educational level.
Highlights
The ocular axial length is a principal biometric measure of the eye and the most important determinant of axial ametropias, i.e. myopia and hyperopia
Out of 1526 individuals primarily participating in the Ural Very Old Study (UVOS) and undergoing the standardized interview at their homes, the present investigation included 717 (47.0%) individuals for whom measurements of axial length for both eyes had been performed in the hospital (Table 2; Fig. 1)
In our study on an old population recruited in a population-based manner, mean axial length was 23.1 ± 1.1 mm, with a mean prevalence of moderate myopia and high myopia of 6.6% and 1.4%, respectively
Summary
The ocular axial length is a principal biometric measure of the eye and the most important determinant of axial ametropias, i.e. myopia and hyperopia. Knowledge about the prevalence of axial myopia, in particular of high myopia, in an elderly, yet unexplored population could give insight into the associations of axial moderate and high myopia with other ocular and systemic parameters in such a study sample, and, by comparing the prevalence of high myopia between such an elderly population and a normal-aged population could potentially give hints for the future development of the Ophthalmology, Medical Faculty Mannheim of the Ruprecht-Karls-University of Heidelberg, Theodor‐Kutzerufer 1, 68167 Mannheim, Germany. We conducted this survey to examine the distribution of axial length and its determinants in a study population aged 85 + y ears[15]. To avoid a referral bias, we recruited the participants in a population-based manner
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