Astigmatism is a common vision disorder that leads to blurred vision due to the inability of the ocular system to form a sharply focused image on the retina, and it accounts for approximately 13% of the refractive errors of the human eye. 1 Previous studies have suggested that uncorrected astigmatism is associated with increased risk of myopia or amblyopia.2,3,4,5,6,7 Early detection of astigmatism in pediatric populations is particularly important because of its potential influence on normal visual development.
The exact cause of astigmatism is unknown. However, risk factors for astigmatism have been evaluated, particularly from population-based studies. Recently, pooled data from the Multi-ethnic Pediatric Eye Disease Study (MEPEDS) and the Baltimore Pediatric Eye Disease Study (BPEDS) were analyzed with regard to the demographic, behavioral and clinical risk factors for astigmatism. The pooled data showed that younger age (<12 months), Hispanic ethnicity, the presence of significant refractive error (myopia or hyperopia) and maternal smoking during pregnancy were each associated with an increased risk of astigmatism.8 However,
The Vision In Preschoolers (VIP) Study was a multicenter study of preschool children in Head Start, representing a large sample of children (N=4,040) from a variety of racial/ethnic groups (African American, American Indian, Asian, Hispanic, and non-Hispanic White) across five VIP clinical centers (Berkeley, California Boston, Massachusetts Columbus, All the children underwent comprehensive eye examinations performed by VIP-certified pediatric optometrists and ophthalmologists. The standardized eye examination data from the VIP Study provided an additional resource for the study of risk factors for astigmatism. Recently, we compared the vision disorders across racial/ethnicity groups and found that prevalence of astigmatism varied across racial/ethnicity groups with the lowest prevalence rate in American Indian (4.3%) and highest in Hispanic children (11.1%). 9 However, this study did not evaluate other risk factors for astigmatism. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the demographic and ocular risk factors for astigmatism identified from the MEPEDS and BPEDS 8 were also associated with astigmatism in the VIP Study participants from disparate racial/ethnic groups.
