Prevalence of Amblyopia

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Amblyopia is a term for unexplained reduction of visual acuity, usually in one eye. Many public and private agencies are conducting programs of screening, diagnosis, and treatment of amblyopia. In the present investigation, 1.0% of 2,762 school children had monocular amblyopia of 20/40-or-worse acuity with a difference between the eyes of more than one acuity line. Newly discovered amblyopia amounted to 0.4%. In a sample of 7,017 persons 10 to 50 years old who attended the clinic of the University of California School of Optometry, Berkeley, prevalence of amblyopia was found to be 1.7% when a criterion of 20/40-or-worse acuity with more than one line difference between the eyes was used. Of all the amblyopic persons found in samples of school children and patients, only a small proportion had worse than 20/200 acuity (legal blindness), and a large proporation had acuities in the region of 20/40. In this region, prevalence of amblyopia was found to change markedly with a small change in the acuity criterion. There was no significant difference in the prevalence of amblyopia between kindergarteners and children in grades 1 through 6. Since amblyopia seems to develop only rarely after children reach school age, a similar prevalence is expected in children and adults.