Table 5.

Prevalence of severe myopia (≤ −5 diopter spherical equivalent) by race-ethnicity, gender, and age, NHANES 1999–2004.

	Prevalence and 95% CI* for ages:
	20–39 years	40–59 years	60 years and older	20 years and older	40 years and older
Total	7.4	7.8	3.1	6.5	6.0
	6.5–8.3	6.4–9.1	2.2–3.9	5.8–7.2	5.0–6.9
Males	5.6	6.8	3.2	5.5	5.4
	4.4–6.8	4.9–8.6	2.0–4.4	4.6–6.4	4.1–6.7
Females	9.2	8.8	2.9	7.6	6.5
	7.8–10.5	7.3–10.3	1.8–4.1	6.8–8.4	5.6–7.5
Non–Hispanic	5.5	5.7	2.0	4.7	4.3
black	3.5–7.4	4.0–7.4	0.9–3.0	3.7–5.8	3.2–5.4
Males	3.0	3.6	2.5	3.1	3.2
	1.0–4.9	1.7–5.6	0.6–4.4	2.1–4.1	2.0–4.4
Females	7.5	7.4	1.6	6.1	5.2
	4.5–10.6	4.5–10.4	0.1–3.1	4.5–7.7	3.4–7.0
Non–Hispanic	7.9	8.5	3.0	7.0	6.4
white	6.5–9.3	6.7–10.4	2.1–4.0	6.0–8.0	5.2–7.7
Males	6.5	7.4	3.5	6.1	5.9
	4.8–8.2	5.0–9.8	2.1–4.9	5.0–7.3	4.3–7.5
Females	9.4	9.7	2.7	7.9	7.0
	7.2–11.5	7.7–11.6	1.4–3.9	6.7–9.2	5.7–8.3
Mexican	4.2	3.6	2.7	3.6	3.3
American	2.5–5.8	2.5–4.8	1.5–3.8	2.8–4.5	2.5–4.0
Males	2.8	1.4	2.9	2.3	2.0
	1.6–4.0	0.6–2.2	0.7–5.2	1.6–3.0	1.0–3.0
Females	5.9	6.0	2.5	5.1	4.6
	2.9–8.9	3.6–8.5	0.9–4.0	3.5–6.8	3.2–6.1
Other	9.1	6.7	4.6	7.2	5.9
	6.6–11.6	2.9–10.6	1.1–8.2	5.1–9.2	3.2–8.6
Males	6.0	8.2	0.5	5.5	5.2
	3.2–8.9	1.9–14.5	0.0–1.5	3.0–8.1	1.3–9.1
Females	12.3	5.7	7.5	8.8	6.4
	8.4–16.3	1.8–9.6	1.6–13.4	6.1–11.4	3.2–9.6

^*CI: Confidence interval.