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Erschienen in:
04.04.2017 | Review
Advanced myopia, prevalence and incidence analysis
Erschienen in: International Ophthalmology | Ausgabe 2/2018
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Purpose
Various high-percentage high-incidence medical conditions, acute or chronic, start at a particular age of onset t1 (years), accumulate or progress rapidly, with a system time constant t0 (years), typically from 1 week to 5 years, and then level off at a plateau level \(\left\langle S \right\rangle\), ultimately affecting 10–95% of the population. This report investigates the prevalence and incidence functions for myopia and high myopia as a function of age.
Methods
Fundamental prevalence versus time and incidence versus time results allow continuous prediction of myopia and high myopia population fractions as a function of age. This is a retrospective study. Nine reports are calculated with N = 444,600 subjects. There were no interventions other than usual regular eye examinations and subsequent indicated refraction change.
Results
The main result is continuous prediction of myopia prevalence–time data along with incidence rate data (%/year), age of onset (years), system plateau level, and system time constant (years). These parameters apply to progressive myopia and high myopia (R < −6 D), useful over several decades.
Conclusions
The primary finding of this research is that the prevalence ratio of high myopes (R < −6.0 D) to common myopes is expected to increase from 15% entering college to 45% or more after college and graduate school. These statistics are particularly relevant to the many years of study required by M.D., Ph.D., and M.D./Ph.D. programs.