The Prevalence of Accommodative Isufficiency in a Higher Education Student Population

Purpose: To survey the prevalence of accommodative insufficiency in a higher education student population from Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Patients and Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on 596 eyes from 298 students residing in dormitories of Iran Uni-versity of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, (157 males, 141 females) in the age range of 18-29 years from 2014 to 2015. The amplitude of accommodation for each participant in this study was assessed by the Donders’ push-up method. Then, the minimum level of normal accommodative amplitude adjusted for the participants’ age was calculated using the Hofshetter formula (15 − 0.25 × age) and the prevalence of adaptive insufficiency was calculated by comparing these two numbers for each participant. Results: The mean accommodative amplitude was 12.86 diopters for all participants. The prevalence of accommodative insufficiency in the studied population measured using Donders’ push-up method and evaluated based on Hofshetter formula was 4.5 %. There was a statistically significant difference between the male and female participants regarding the prevalence of accommodative insufficiency with 4.1 percent of males and 7.25 percent of females showing accommodative insufficiency. Conclusion: The prevalence of accommodative insufficiency was comparable in our population to previous studies. A higher prevalence of accommodative insufficiency was observed among female participants.