Refractive and corneal astigmatism in Chinese 4–15 years old children: prevalence and risk factors

BACKGROUND: To investigate the prevalence and risk factors of refractive astigmatism (RA) and corneal astigmatism (CA) in preschool children and school-aged children in Shanghai, China. METHODS: In this school-based, cross-sectional study, 4–15 years old children across three learning stages of kindergarten, primary school, and junior high school underwent noncycloplegic autorefraction and completed comprehensive questionnaires involving time spent on daily homework and outdoor activities. Data from the right eyes were analysed. RESULTS: Overall, 7084 children (mean ± standard deviation (SD) of age: 8.08 ± 3.11 years) were included, and the prevalence rates of RA/CA ( ≤ − 1.0 D) in children were 15.8%/64% in kindergartens, 16.5%/65% in primary schools, and 32.8%/76.9% in junior high schools. The magnitude and prevalence of RA and CA all increased with age or with learning stage (all P < 0.001). The presence of RA was associated with more myopic spherical power (odds ratio (OR) 0.956, P = 0.021), junior high school (OR 1.973, P < 0.001), longer homework time on weekdays (OR 1.074, P = 0.029), and shorter outdoor activity time on weekends (odds ratio 0.929, P = 0.013). CONCLUSION: In the wide age range of 4 to 15 years, the magnitude and prevalence of RA and CA increased with the learning stage, and these increases mainly began at the primary school stage. Factors, including longer homework time and shorter outdoor time were correlated with the presence of RA. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12886-023-03201-y.