Accommodative Amplitude in School-Age Children

In children, intensive near-work affects the accommodation system of the eye. Younger children, due to anatomical parameters, read at smaller distance than older children and we can expect that the accommodation system of younger can be affected more than that of older children. We wanted to test this hypothesis. Some authors showed that the norms of amplitude of accommodation (AA) developed by Hofstetter (1950) not always could be applied for children. We also wanted to verify these results. A total of 106 (age 7-15) children participated in the study. Distance visual acuity was measured for all children and only data of children with good visual acuity 1.0 or more (dec. units) were analysed (73 children). Accommodative amplitude was measured before and after lessons using subjective push-up technique (with RAF Near Point Ruler). The results showed that the amplitude of accommodation reduced significantly (p < 0.05) during the day and decrease of AA was similar in different age groups (about ~0.70 D). Additional measurements are needed to verify that the observed changes in AA were associated with fatigue effect. The results showed lower accommodation values compared to average values calculated according to the Hofstetter equation (p < 0.05).