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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2012 Feb 1.
Published in final edited form as: Ophthalmology. 2011 Feb;118(2):284–293. doi: 10.1016/j.ophtha.2010.06.038

Table 5.

Prevalence of subtypes of high astigmatism (worse eye cylinder power ≥3.00 diopters) in African-American and Hispanic children, stratified by age, in the Multi-Ethnic Pediatric Eye Disease Study.

Age
group
(months)
N Types of Astigmatism
n (%)*
WTR ATR OBL
AA Hisp AA Hisp p* AA Hisp p** AA Hisp p*
6 to 11 277 296 3
(1.1)
15
(5.1)
0.006 1
(0.4)
0
(0.0)
0.30 2
(0.7)
1
(0.3)
0.52
12 to 23 549 543 5
(0.9)
8
(1.5)
0.39 0
(0.0)
1
(0.2)
0.31 1
(0.2)
1
(0.2)
0.99
24 to 35 545 572 3
(0.6)
10
(1.8)
0.06 0
(0.0)
0
(0.0)
- 0
(0.0)
0
(0.0)
-
36 to 47 532 532 4
(0.8)
18
(3.4)
0.003 0
(0.0)
0
(0.0)
- 0
(0.0)
0
(0.0)
-
48 to 59 548 543 6
(1.1)
15
(2.8)
0.045 0
(0.0)
0
(0.0)
- 1
(0.2)
1
(0.2)
0.99
60 to 72 543 544 10
(1.8)
21
(3.8)
0.046 0
(0.0)
0
(0.0)
- 1
(0.2)
1
(0.2)
0.999
Total 2994 3030 31
(1.0)
87
(2.9)
<0.001 1
(0.03)
1
(0.03)
0.99 5
(0.2)
4
(0.1)
0.99

AA: African American; Hisp: Hispanic

*

Percentage of total in corresponding age and ethnic group

**

p: p value for comparison of proportions between ethnicities using Chi-square test

WTR: With-the-rule astigmatism, defined as astigmatism with the axis of greatest power within +/− 15 degrees of 90, i.e., in the range [75–105°]; ATR: Against-the-rule astigmatism, defined as astigmatism with the axis of greatest power within +/− 15 degrees of 180, i.e., in the range [1–15°] or [165–180°]; OBL: Oblique axis astigmatism, which includes all other orientations (axis of greatest power in the range [106–164°] or [16–74°]).

The worse eye is defined as the eye with the largest absolute amount of cylindrical refractive error. In ties for magnitude, oblique astigmatism is considered worse than WTR or ATR astigmatism. There were no ties for magnitude between ATR and WTR astigmatism ≥3.00 D.