Corneal Curvature Radius in Myopia of Schoolchildren Versus Adult Myopia.

PURPOSE: To assess whether anterior corneal curvature radius (CCR) is associated with the increased prevalence of myopia in Asia. METHODS: The investigation included the adult populations of the Central India Eye and Medical Study (CIEMS; 4711 adults) and Beijing Eye Study (BES; 3468 adults) and the children and teenager populations of the Shandong Children Eye Study (6026 children; age: 9.7 ± 3.3 years; range: 4-18 years) and Beijing Pediatric Eye Study (681 children; age: 7.7 ± 1.6 years; range: 5-13 years). RESULTS: In both adult study populations, CCR was not significantly (BES: P = 0.60; CIEMS: P = 0.14) associated with the level of education. In highly myopic subgroups, longer CCR was associated with a lower educational level [CIEMS: P = 0.04; standardized regression coefficient ß = -0.23; nonstandardized regression coefficient B: -0.06; 95% confidence interval (CI), -0.11 to 0.01] or showed a tendency toward a lower educational level (BES: P = 0.09; ß = -0.25; B: -0.06; 95% CI, -0.12 to 0.01). In the young study populations, longer CCR was significantly associated with parameters indicating a lower educational level, such as lower educational level of father (P = 0.001; ß: -0.04; B: -0.01; 95% CI, -0.02 to -0.01) and mother (P = 0.0.02; ß: -0.14; B: -0.05; 95% CI, -0.09 to -0.01) and more time spent outdoors (P = 0.001; ß: 0.15; B: 0.05; 95% CI, 0.02 to 0.07) and less time spent indoors (P < 0.001; ß: -0.15; B: -0.04; 95% CI, -0.06 to -0.02). In all study populations, longer CCR was significantly correlated (multivariate analysis) with longer axial length and lower prevalence of high myopia. CONCLUSIONS: Adult study populations and schoolchildren populations did not differ in the associations of longer CCR with parameters indicating a lower educational level, longer axial length, and lower prevalence of high myopia. CCR was not useful for the differentiation between high myopia in schoolchildren and high pathological myopia in adults.