Purpose Uncorrected refractive errors are the first cause of vision impairment worldwide. High myopia is a frequent cause of sight‐threatening chorioretinal complications. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of macular complications, visual impairment and blindness in patients with myopia. Methods A cross‐sectional multicenter study carried out in French eye clinics mainly dedicated to refractive errors. Myopia severity was defined as mild (−0.5 to −3 D), moderate (−3 to −6 D), high (−6 to −10 D) and very high (more than −10 D). Macular complications related to myopia included lacquer cracks, myopic choroidal neovascularization, chorioretinal atrophy and retinoschisis. The prevalences of macular complications, blindness and vision impairment were estimated with respect to degree of myopia and age. Eligibility criteria were myopia on the left eye of −0.5 D or more. Exclusion criteria included any missing data related to subjective refractive error, age, gender and any history of cataract or refractive surgery. Results Data files from 198 641 myopic individuals with a mean age of 34 years (SD: 15 years) were analysed. The prevalence of mild, moderate, high and very high myopia was, respectively, 65.95%, 26.14%, 6.72% and 1.19%. The prevalence of macular complications in the high and very high myopia groups was 0.5% [0.39–0.64] and 4.27% [3.49–5.17]. The prevalence of blindness or vision impairment was observed in 10.10% [8.91–11.39%] of the very high myopic group. At 60 years old or over, the prevalences of blindness or vision impairment were, respectively, 9.75% [7.91–11.85%] and 25.71% [21.00–30.87%] in the high and very high myopia groups. Conclusions This multicenter cross‐sectional study provides new insights in terms of prevalence of macular complications related to myopia. To our knowledge, this is one of the largest European studies focusing on individuals with myopia, particularly on the macular complications and the functional consequences in relation to myopia.
Refractive error (RE), particularly myopia, is the first cause of visual impairment throughout the world. This study aimed to depict the prevalence of myopia in a multicentric series of French individuals.This cross-sectional analysis was carried out between January 2012 and November 2013 in eye clinics dedicated to REs. Data collection included age, gender, best-corrected visual acuity, RE, and any relevant medical history involving laser refractive surgery and cataract surgery. Exclusion criteria consisted of monophthalm patients or those with incomplete demographic data.Prevalences in the overall population, by gender and by age groups were reported for mild myopia (−0.50 to −2.75 diopter [D]), moderate myopia (−3 to −5.75 D), high myopia (less than −6 D), and very high myopia (less than −10 D).The analysis included 100,429 individuals, mean age 38.5 years (± 16.9). Overall prevalence of myopia was 39.1% (95% CI 38.8-39.4). Prevalences of mild, moderate, high and very high myopia were respectively 25.1% (95% CI 25.4-24.9), 10.6% (95% CI 10.4-10.8), 3.4% (95% CI 3.3-3.5) and 0.5% (95% CI 0.48-0.57).Even if possible bias occurred in recruitment, our results are similar to RE data collected in nationally representative samples of Caucasians in other studies. This is to our knowledge, one of the largest European series of individuals dedicated to myopia prevalences in different age groups. These results confirm the importance of myopia as a major health issue in Western countries.
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