Astigmatism among Chinese school children

This study aims to provide information about the prevalence of astigmatism among Chinese school children in Hong Kong, and its relationship with age, sex and corneal toricity. Subjective refraction and corneal curvatures were performed on 383 school children from age six to 17 years. Although there is a high prevalence of myopia among Chinese populations, astigmatism does not seem to follow the same trend. Among school children from age six to 17 years, about 50 per cent suffer from astigmatism. For those with astigmatic errors, both corrected and corneal astigmatism remain constant and low. With‐the‐rule astigmatism predominates. These results are comparable to the data from Caucasian populations. The relationship between corrected astigmatism and corneal astigmatism also confirmed previous findings. The modified version of Javal's rule suggested by Grosvenor et al1 would also serve as a good guide in determining the corrected astigmatism for the Chinese group.