Ocular biometry and their correlations with ocular and anthropometric measurements among Ethiopian adults

Abstract

Purpose: To determine the average values of ocular biometry dimensions and investigate their inter-correlations and their association with anthropometric measurements among Ethiopian adults with healthy eyes. Methods: A cross-sectional study was undertaken from June 2018 to July 2019. A total of 400 eyes of 200 subjects were included in the study. Univariable and multivariable linear regression were used to determine the association of demographic variables (age and sex) and anthropometric parameters (height, weight and BMI) with ocular biometric indices. Results: The mean age was 40.31±11.39 with a range from 18 to 69 years. The mean (SD) of horizontal corneal diameter, average corneal refractive power, anterior chamber depth (ACD), lens thickness (LT) and axial length (AL) were 11.45 (0.89) mm, 43.94 (9.78) diopter, 2.91 (0.43) mm, 4.29 (0.55) mm and 22.96 (0.82) mm, respectively. Age had a negative correlation with ACD (r= −0.196, p= <0.001) and positive correlation with lens thickness (r= 0.324, p<0.001). Height had a positive correlation with ACD (r=0.114, p=0.023) and LT (r= 0.206, p=<0.001) while negative correlation with LT (r=−0.129, p=0.01). In the multivariate linear regression, age (−0.009 (−0.013, −0.05), p-value <0.001) and sex (0.104 (0.01, 0.198), p-value=0.03) had a significant association with ACD and only gender (0.478 (0.302, 0.654), p-value <0.001) had a statistically significant association with lens thickness. Conclusion: This study determined the normative values for ocular biometric parameters among Ethiopian adults for the first time. Age, gender and height were associated with biometric indices. AL was significantly positively correlated with ACD and negatively correlated with LT. There was a negative correlation between LT and both AL and ACD.