Comparison of Refractive Measures of Three Autorefractors in School-Aged Children and Adolescents

Objective: To assess the validity, differences and agreements among measurements of refractive status in school-aged children and adolescents using Goaleye RM-9000, Nidek AR-1 and Topcon RM-800. Methods: In this prospective study, 449 individuals (449 right eyes) aged from 9 to 18 from Eye Hospital, Wenzhou Medical University were measured in turns by the three autorefractors for their refractive status in random sequence from May to June, 2019. Then a professional optometrist conducted a subjective refraction for them by phoropter. All measurements by the three autorefractors were compared using a Friedman test, and measurements by the three autorefractors were compared with the subjective refraction respectively using Wilcoxon signed ranks test. Results: The median of spherical equivalent (SE) from Goaleye RM-9000, Nidek AR-1, Topcon RM-800 and the subjective refraction were -2.38(2.63)D, -2.63(2.44)D, -2.75(2.56)D and -2.38(2.50)D, respectively. There were significant differences among the SE of the three autorefractors in the refraction measurement of school-aged children and adolescents (χ2=384.893, P<0.001). There were no significant differences between the SE of Goaleye RM-9000 and subjective refraction (Z=-0.199, P=0.842), There were significant differences between the SE of Nidek AR-1 and subjective refraction (Z=-11.753, P<0.001), There were significant differences between the SE of Topcon RM-800 and subjective refraction (Z=-15.733, P<0.001). Conclusion: The measurements conducted by Goaleye RM-9000 and Nidek AR-1 were more accurate than by Topcon RM-800. There were significant differences among the results of the three autorefractors in the refraction measurement of school-aged children and adolescents. Key words: refractive error; refraction; spherical equivalent; agreement; children and adolescents