Gender and Refractive Error Stratified Ocular Biometry Percentile Curves in Indian School Children

Ophthalmic Physiol Opt. 2026 May 11. doi: 10.1007/s44402-026-00099-z. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To develop gender and refractive error stratified percentile curves for anterior and posterior ocular biometry components of Indian school children based on age.

METHOD: A retrospective analysis of 2168 Indian school children (aged 10-17 years) was conducted. Right eye percentile curves for spherical equivalent refraction (SER), axial length (AL), average keratometry (K), axial length to corneal radius of curvature (AL/CRC) ratio, central corneal thickness (CCT), anterior segment length (ASL), lens thickness, posterior segment length (PSL) and posterior segment length to anterior segment length (PSL/ASL) ratio were generated with the Lambda-Mu-Sigma method. The overall data were categorised into myopes (uncorrected visual acuity ≥0.10 logMAR and SER ≤ - 0.75 D) and non-myopes (including those with emmetropia, hyperopia and astigmatism) based on non-cycloplegic autorefraction values.

RESULTS: Overall, the AL, ASL, PSL and AL/CRC ratios were higher at 17 than 10 years of age (p ≤ 0.01), while the average K, CCT, LT and PSL/ASL ratios showed no significant difference. At 10 and 17 years, the respective 50th (2nd, 98th) percentile for AL was 23.09 (21.52, 24.72) mm and 23.74 (22.18, 26.43) mm in males and 22.37 (21.16, 23.76) mm and 23.07 (21.37, 26.34) mm in females. The 98th percentiles for AL, PSL and AL/CRC ratio (across all age groups, including both genders) in non-myopes spanned between the 75th and 90th percentiles in myopes. For emmetropes, AL percentiles (50th (2nd, 98th)) were 22.58 (21.26, 23.96) mm at 10 years and 23.20 (21.55, 25.18) mm at 17 years of age.

CONCLUSION: AL, PSL, ASL and AL/CRC ratio increased with age, while other parameters showed no significant variation. Significant gender-based differences were found between AL percentiles and for refractive groups. The significant overlap between myopes and non-myopes suggests that AL and AL/CRC ratio percentiles alone may have limited discriminatory value between refractive groups in a cross-sectional clinical setting.

PMID:42113423 | DOI:10.1007/s44402-026-00099-z