By Amy Norton
Reuters Health
(Reuters Health) – Young Hispanic children may be more likely to have the vision defect astigmatism than their African-American peers, a new study finds.
Astigmatism refers to a distortion in the curvature of the cornea that can blur near and distance vision. Fairly little has been known about how widespread the problem is among preschool children, and how their susceptibility may vary by ethnicity.
In the new study, researchers found that among 3,000 Hispanic children between the ages of 6 months and 6 years, 17 percent had at least mild astigmatism and 3 percent had a significant degree of astigmatism that would generally require corrective lenses.