Refractive Errors and Amblyopia in Mexican Children Aged 6–12 Years: Clinical Prevalence and Visual Impact.
Highlights: What are the main findings? Myopia is the most clinically prevalent refractive error in Mexican children. Astigmatism is the main contributor to refractive amblyopia and related visual impairment in Mexican outpatient children. What are the implications of the main findings? It is import...
| Publicado en: | Children Vol. 12; no. 12; pp. 1641 - 1662 |
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| Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , |
| Formato: | pictorial research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Publicado: |
MDPI
Dec2025
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=190544902&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 190544902 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 22279067 LW6K jtl: Children issn: 22279067 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Dec2025 vid: 12 iid: 12 pid: 97109 pub: MDPI artinfo: ui: 190544902 190544902 190544902 10.3390/children12121641 190544902 ppf: 1641 ppct: 21 formats: tig: atl: Refractive Errors and Amblyopia in Mexican Children Aged 6–12 Years: Clinical Prevalence and Visual Impact. aug: au: García-Gil, Abraham Gómez-Torales, Israel García-Nahara, Kalahary Patricia Luna-Ruiz-Esparza, Marco Antonio Espinoza-Angulo, Eduardo Machado-Jiménez, Héctor Riverón-Negrete, Leticia Gómez-Campaña, Humberto Campos-Romero, Abraham Alcántar-Fernández, Jonathan affil: Innovation and Research Department, Salud Digna, Culiacan 80184, Mexico sug: subj: Refractive Errors In Infancy and Childhood Amblyopia In Infancy and Childhood Vision Disorders In Infancy and Childhood Vision Disorders Epidemiology Amblyopia Epidemiology Refractive Errors Epidemiology Mexico Child Human Myopia Epidemiology Astigmatism Epidemiology Hyperopia Epidemiology Refractive Errors Classification Amblyopia Complications Severity of Illness Sex Factors Male Female Geographic Factors Ambulatory Care Facilities Diagnosis, Eye Cross Sectional Studies Retrospective Design Record Review Electronic Health Records Questionnaires Surveys Data Analysis Software Software Confidence Intervals Chi Square Test Two-Tailed Test Descriptive Statistics Child: 6-12 years Male Female ab: Highlights: What are the main findings? Myopia is the most clinically prevalent refractive error in Mexican children. Astigmatism is the main contributor to refractive amblyopia and related visual impairment in Mexican outpatient children. What are the implications of the main findings? It is important to implement and strengthen school-based screening programs for refractive errors and for amblyopia. Training initiatives for teachers and school health personnel, along with public awareness campaigns led by optometrists, are essential. Background: Refractive errors (REs) and amblyopia are the leading causes of visual impairment (VI) in children worldwide; however, national data for Mexico are scarce. Objective: We aim to estimate the clinical prevalence of RE, refractive amblyopia, and associated visual impairment (VI) in Mexican children aged 6–12 years. Methods: We analyzed 784,372 non-cycloplegic eye examinations from Salud Digna outpatient clinics across all 32 Mexican states (2021–2025). REs were classified as myopia (≤−0.50 D), hyperopia (≥+2.00 D), or astigmatism (≤ −1.00 D cylinder). Refractive amblyopia was defined as best-corrected visual acuity ≤ 20/30 in the most affected eye. The VI categories followed the WHO criteria. Results: Myopia was the most frequent (43.86%), followed by astigmatism (38.41%) and hyperopia (1.29%). Refractive amblyopia affected 4.94% of the children, predominantly due to astigmatic isoametropia (72.19%). VI related to refractive amblyopia occurred in 1.20% (mild), 0.37% (moderate), 0.01% (severe), and 0.01% (blindness) of children. Men showed a higher prevalence of RE and refractive amblyopia (p < 0.01). Geographic disparities were evident, with the central and southern states reporting the highest RA rates. Conclusions: Our outpatient-based study underscores REs, refractive amblyopia, and astigmatic ametropia as significant public health concerns in Mexican school-aged children. The high prevalence of uncorrected REs and refractive amblyopia highlights the need for nationwide school-based screening programs and early intervention strategies to mitigate long-term visual and developmental consequences. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: pictorial research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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