Refraction during incipient presbyopia: the Aston Longitudinal Assessment of Presbyopia (ALAP) study

Deborah S. Laughton, Amy L. Sheppard, Leon N. Davies*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate non-cycloplegic changes in refractive error prior to the onset of presbyopia.
Methods: The Aston Longitudinal Assessment of Presbyopia (ALAP) study is a prospective 2.5 year longitudinal study, measuring objective refractive error using a binocular open-field WAM-5500 autorefractor at 6-month intervals in participants aged between 33 and 45 years.
Results: From the 58 participants recruited, 51 participants (88%) completed the final visit. At baseline, 21 participants were myopic (MSE -3.25 ± 2.28 DS; baseline age 38.6 ± 3.1 years) and 30 were emmetropic (MSE −0.17 ± 0.32 DS; baseline age 39.0 ± 2.9 years). After 2.5 years, 10% of the myopic group experienced a hypermetropic shift (≥0.50 D), 5% a myopic shift (≥0.50 D) and 85% had no significant change in refraction (<0.50 D). From the emmetropic group, 10% experienced a hypermetropic shift (≥0.50 D), 3% a myopic shift (≥0.50 D) and 87% had no significant change in refraction (<0.50 D). In terms of astigmatism vectors, other than J45 (p < 0.001), all measures remained invariant over the study period.
Conclusion: The incidence of a myopic shift in refraction during incipient presbyopia does not appear to be as large as previously indicated by retrospective research. The changes in axis indicate ocular astigmatism tends towards the against-the-rule direction with age. The structural origin(s) of the reported myopic shift in refraction during incipient presbyopia warrants further investigation.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)49-56
Number of pages8
JournalJournal of Optometry
Volume11
Issue number1
Early online date7 Jun 2017
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2018

Bibliographical note

© 2017, Elsevier. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Keywords

  • presbyopia
  • myopia
  • refractive error

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