Frequency of myopia in adults in Mexico City: Results of a visual health campaign

Abstract

Purpose: To estimate the frequency of myopia in an adult population in Mexico City. Methods: Retrospective, cross-sectional and descriptive study.The spherical equivalent of the right eye was calculated from the refraction without cycloplegia obtained with an auto kerato-refractometer in patients examined during an ophthalmic health campaign carried out at the Instituto Nacional de Rehabilitación “Luis Guillermo Ibarra Ibarra” from January to March 2018. Results: We found a frequency of myopia of 45.21% with a cut-off value of ≤ -0.5 diopters of spherical equivalent in the 449 participants. Of these, 39.43% had mild myopia > -6.00 diopters, and 5.79% had high myopia ≤ -6.00 diopters of spherical equivalent. On the other hand, only 4 of the 449 examined patients had clinical signs of pathological myopia, making up 0.8% of the total sample. Of the remaining participants, 28.73% were classified as emmetropic and 26.05% as hyperopic, with a spherical equivalent ≥ 0.50 diopters. Conclusions: The frequency of myopia observed in our study is high and similar to that informed in previous reports in Mexican children and young adults, just as in some nations in Asia where myopia is a public health problem.