ArticlePloS one2022
The prevalence and causes of pediatric uncorrected refractive error: Pooled data from population studies for Global Burden of Disease (GBD) sub-regions.
Article in PloS one, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
28 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 35 citations in OpenAlex.
- Prevalence of clinically significant refractive error in children in Europe: Systematic review and meta-analysis.PloS one · 2025Pooled it
- Eyecare health promotion in schools around the Free State Province, South Africa: school-based interventional study.International journal of public health · 2026Trial
- Article
- Prevalence and Distribution of Axis Subtypes of Refractive Astigmatism in Mexican Outpatients: A Nationwide Multicenter Clinic-Based Cross-Sectional Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- Vision screening of Greenlandic children evaluating efficacy, coverage and future directions.Acta ophthalmologica · 2026Article
- Clinic-based prevalence of uncorrected refractive errors and associated visual impairment: a nationwide cross-sectional study of 3.6 million outpatients in Mexico.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Prevalence of Refractive Error Among School Children in Malawi.Journal of ophthalmology · 2026Article
- The Fundus Red Reflex Test Using a Smartphone Showed High Accuracy Compared to an Autorefractor to Detect Refractive Errors in Children.Journal of ophthalmic & vision research · 2026Article
- Article
- Refractive error among school-aged children in Bhutan: A secondary analysis of data from nationwide Bhutan School Sight Survey.PLOS global public health · 2026Article
- Parents' and teachers' perspectives on the barriers to spectacle uptake among learners in the Free State, South Africa.Health SA = SA Gesondheid · 2026Article
- Current status of school vision screening-rationale, models, impact and challenges: a review.The British journal of ophthalmology · 2025Review
- Rapid and accurate prediction of cycloplegic refraction in Chinese children: development and validation of machine learning models.Journal of global health · 2025Article
- Prevalence of uncorrected refractive error in low-resource high schools in the Free State, South Africa.African journal of primary health care & family medicine · 2025Article
- Access to Myopia Care in the United States-A Narrative Review.Investigative ophthalmology & visual science · 2025Review
- Situation analysis of the social enterprises engaged in refractive error services delivery in Kenya.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Uncorrected refractive errors, visual impairment and need for spectacles among children and adolescents in eastern, China.PloS one · 2025Article
- Trends in prevalence and disability-adjusted life years for refractive disorders in China and globally from 1990 to 2021: an analysis of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Prevalence and associated risk factors of visual impairment in school children: mHealth-based vision screening in government schools of Rawalpindi, Pakistan.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Article
- Prevalence and association of uncorrected refractive error among Chinese adolescents: a cross-sectional study.BMC public health · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThere are limited systematic reviews on the prevalence of uncorrected refractive errors in children. We aimed to summarize the prevalence and causes of pediatric uncorrected refractive error (URE) from studies in the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) sub-regions.
methodsThe pooled analysis used the individual participant data (ages less than 20 years old) from population-based studies around the world by regions. URE was defined as presenting VA < 6/18 and improving to ≥ 6/18 or ≥1 line on using a pinhole in either eye, with main causes of myopia, hyperopia or astigmatism. Each study provided data on any URE, myopia, hyperopia or astigmatism by age, gender, and ethnicity. Prevalence rates were directly age and gender standardized to the 2020 world population with all age groups. Estimates were calculated by study and sub-regions after pooling. Summary estimates included studies in which URE was assessed from a pinhole-corrected refraction in the better eye.
resultsThe combined pooled data contained 302,513,219 patients including 8 963 URE cases individuals from 57 studies. Prevalence varied by age and GBD sub-regions and differed by gender. The age- and region-standardized prevalence of URE was 3.41 per 1000 (CI, 1.53~7.62) in Western Pacific region (12 studies), 2.26 per 1000 (CI, 0.85~6.01) in South-East Asia region (14 studies), 5.85 per 1000 (CI, 3.75~9.13) in Americans (11 studies) and 4.40 per 1000 (CI, 3.0~6.45) in Eastern Mediterranean region (13 studies). On the basis of these data, myopia was the first-leading cause in female children with 12~17 age group, with the prevalence rate 18.2 per 1000 (CI, 11.52~23.61). Astigmatism was detected in 27.2 per 1000 male children with 6~11 age group (CI: 19.12-30.68).
conclusionsPrevalence of URE available data within these sub-regions are widely disparate. Myopia and astigmatism in young age children continue as the leading cause of URE worldwide. Providing appropriate refractive correction to those individuals whose vision can be improved is an important public health endeavor with implications for safety and quality of life.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.