Is the prevalence and level of astigmatism different in indigenous Bangladeshi children compared with first-generation children of Bangladeshi origin born in the United Kingdom?

Fatima Mangera

doi:10.22599/bioj.12

Abstract

Aim: To compare the prevalence and level of astigmatism in indigenous Bangladeshi, first-generation British-Bangladeshi and indigenous white British children. Method: Indigenous Bangladeshi, first-generation British-Bangladeshi and indigenous white British children, aged 6–10 years, were recruited from within six London primary schools in the borough of Tower Hamlets. Each child’s refractive error was measured using the Plusoptix autorefractor without cycloplegia. Three readings were taken for each child and averaged to give the mean value for astigmatism. Results: One hundred and thirty-eight (12.8%) positive responses were received in total. Of these, 80 (57%) children fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Fifty-eight (42%) children were rejected because full parental consent was not given for 15 children, 32 children did not fulfil the strict ethnic criteria of the study and 11 children were not within the age range of the study. Eighteen children who fulfilled the criteria were absent from school on the day of testing. In total 62 (45%) children were tested. Analysis showed there was no significant difference in the amount of astigmatism for the right eye (x 2 = 2.306, d.f. = 2, p = 0.316) or left eye (x 2 = 2.935, d.f. = 2, p = 0.231) across the three groups. Conclusion: There was no significant difference in the amount of astigmatism for the right and left eye between indigenous Bangladeshi, first-generation British-Bangladeshi and white-British children aged 6–10 years old. However, due to the small number of children recruited there was limited power to detect any significant differences in the findings.

Highlights

The aim of this study was to compare the prevalence and level of astigmatism in three populations of children aged 6–10 years: those born in Bangladesh who emigrated to the United Kingdom after their third birthday, first-generation British-Bangladeshi children and indigenous white British children who have lived in the United Kingdom all their lives
Six primary schools within the borough of Tower Hamlets agreed to participate in this study
A Kruskal-Wallis test showed there was no significant difference in the amount of astigmatism for the right eye (2 = 2.306, d.f. = 2, p = 0.316) or left eye (2 = 2.935, d.f. = 2, p = 0.231) data across the three groups

Summary

Introduction

Astigmatism is a defect of vision in which the image of an object is distorted, usually in either the vertical or the horizontal axis, because not all the light rays come to a Infants show astigmatism which decreases as the emmetropisation process occurs, and the incidence declines during the third year of life.[1,2,3,4] By 3 years of age astigmatism has reduced significantly.[2,5,6] Studies suggest that infantile astigmatism is eliminated by the age of 6 years[2] and that the process of emmetropisation is largely complete before this age.[2,7]The prevalence of astigmatism in subjects aged less than 1 year to 19 years of age in different countries has been studied (Table 1).[8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17] The data show a variation in prevalence according to continent and the ethnicity of the population studied. Astigmatism is a defect of vision in which the image of an object is distorted, usually in either the vertical or the horizontal axis, because not all the light rays come to a Infants show astigmatism which decreases as the emmetropisation process occurs, and the incidence declines during the third year of life.[1,2,3,4] By 3 years of age astigmatism has reduced significantly.[2,5,6] Studies suggest that infantile astigmatism is eliminated by the age of 6 years[2] and that the process of emmetropisation is largely complete before this age.[2,7]. Comparison of prevalence rates of astigmatism between studies is difficult because different definitions have been used. Many previous studies have used 1 DC as their defined limit (Table 1).[8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17]

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Conclusion