Patterns of Myopia in the Barbados Eye Study

Summary

Population-based data on myopia in black adults are limited. The Barbados Eye Study (BES) is a population-based epidemiologic study that investigated major eye diseases in a large, predominantly black population. The BES included 4709 Barbados-bom citizens (84% of those eligible), ranging in age between 40 and 84 years. This report describes the frequency of myopia by self-reported race and presents the age-and sex-specific prevalence of myopia, as well as of high myopia, among BES black participants. b myopia were defined as spherical equivalents < −0.5 and < −6.0 diopters, respectively, based on data obtained through non-cycloplegic automated refraction. Analyses included the right eyes of 4036 black participants, after excluding individuals with a prior hi of cataract s The overall prevalence of myopia was 21.9%; men had a higher frequency of my; r women (25.0% vs. 19.5%, P.< 0.001). Among BES black males, the prevalence d from 19% at ages 40–49 years to 15% at ages 50–59 years but increased over the age c f 0 years. A similar pattern was noted in women. These age-specific patterns persisted even after eyes with visual acuity (VA) 20/40 or worse were excluded from the anal). I e overall prevalence of high myopia in black participants was 2.3%; a similar pattern of increasing prevalence after 60 years of age was noted. The age-specific patterns of myopia prevalence in the BES black population are different from those reported in other studies.