Prevalence of refractive errors in children of Puerto Rico

AIM: To determine the prevalence of refractive error in 5- to 17-year-old schoolchildren in Puerto Rico. METHODS: A quantitative descriptive study of 2867 children aged 5 to 17y from all seven educational regions of Puerto Rico was conducted from 2016–2019. Refractive error was determined via static and subjective refraction. Children with distance acuity ≤20/40 or near visual acuity ≤20/32 had a cycloplegic refraction. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, correlation coefficient, Kruskal?Wallis, Chi-square, and t test calculations. RESULTS: Twenty percent of the children had a spherical equivalent refractive error ≤ -0.50 D, 3.2% had a spherical equivalent ≥ +2.00 D, and 10.4% had astigmatism ≥1 D. There was a statistically (but non-clinically) significant myopic change in spherical equivalent refractive error with age (P