The prevalence of Amblyopia in a young Population

Abstract

Purpose:

The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of amblyopia and its determinants in Iranian students above 18 years.

Methods:

In this university-based cross-sectional study, multi-stage cluster sampling was used to select participants. After selecting the students, visual acuity, objective, and subjective refraction were measured and the best-corrected visual acuity was determined.

Results:

We evaluated 1462 individuals with a mean age of 22.8 ± 3.1 years in this study, of whom 73% were female. The prevalence of amblyopia was 2.19% (95% confidence interval [CI]: [1.43, 2.93]), of which 6.2% was strabismic, 71.8% was refractive (isometropic and anisometropic), and 22.0% was mix (strabismic and anisometropic). No difference was observed in the prevalence of amblyopia between boys and girls (p value = 0.315). The prevalence of amblyopia was 3.93%, 1.71%, 3.79%, and 0% in the age group 18–20, 21–25, 26–30, and above 30 years, respectively (p value = 0.071).

Conclusion:

The results of this study, as the first study investigating the prevalence of amblyopia in Iranian adults, showed a rather higher prevalence of amblyopia in Iranian university students compared to other studies on adults in other countries. Moreover, similar to some other studies, refractive amblyopia had a higher prevalence than other types.