A cycloplegic and non-cycloplegic refraction was obtained on 946 eyes of 213 male subjects and 291 female Eskimos between 6 and 88 years old. When the results obtained are compared with those obtained on white subjects by Bannon, good agreement is found between the two studies in the case of the hypermetropic subjects but relatively poor agreement is found for the myopic subjects. Bannon found approximately 38% of his myopic cases showing less myopia under cycloplegia whereas the present study found 75% of the myopia subjects showing less myopia under cycloplegia. The Barrow population shows an exceptionally high proportion of myopes in the age group between 11 and 26 with approximately 60% being myopic with a high degree of myopia. It is possible that these Eskimo subjects are in such a strong spasm of accommodation that it is not possible to reduce the spasm by means of any type of fogging technique. Thus, when the subjects are put under cycloplegia, there will be a considerable decrease in the amount of myopia resulting from a reduction of the spasm.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Young et al. (1971) studied this question.