{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,16]],"date-time":"2026-09-16T10:52:33Z","timestamp":1789555953057,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":49,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2018,3,20]],"date-time":"2018-03-20T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1521504000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Medicina"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background and objective: Amblyopia is the leading cause of visual impairment in children and adults and is very common during childhood. The aim of this study was to identify the prevalence and the risk factors of amblyopia in a pediatric population with refractive errors from an Eastern European country. Materials and methods: A total of 1231 children aged 5\u201316 years, who had refractive errors and were examined from January to August 2017, were enrolled in a cross-sectional population-based study. Every child underwent a complete ophthalmological exam. Amblyopia was defined as a visual acuity (VA) of less than 0.63. The study respected the Multi-Ethnic Pediatric Eye Disease Study (MEPEDS) criteria for defining amblyopia (MEPEDS, 2008). Parents participated in a face-to-face interview. The questionnaire contained details about their family history of amblyopia; the child\u2019s maternal nutritional status in the preconception period; their history of maternal smoking or work in a toxic environment; the child\u2019s birth, and the child\u2019s history of congenital naso-lacrimal duct obstruction (CNLDO). Results: Amblyopia was identified in 2.8% of the participants. The ocular conditions hyperopia (p = 0.0079), astigmatism (p = 0.046), anisometropia (p &lt; 0.001), esotropia (p &lt; 0.001), exotropia (p = 0.0195), and CNLDO (p &lt; 0.001), as well as a family history of amblyopia (p &lt; 0.001), were associated with amblyopia. The non-ocular risk factors for amblyopia that were found in the study included low birth weight (p &lt; 0.0009), prematurity (p &lt; 0.001), an Apgar score under 7 (p = 0.0008), maternal age, maternal smoking history or work in toxic environment (p &lt; 0.001), and maternal body mass index in the preconception period (p &lt; 0.003). Conclusions: Some of the risk factors we identified for amblyopia are modifiable factors. This is an important observation as an adequate health education program can provide the relevant information for future mothers that will allow for a better management of the condition. We also wanted to highlight the need for amblyopia screening starting from the age of 3 years in case of significant parental refractive errors, strabismus, prematurity, and maternal risk factors.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/medicina54010006","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2018,5,8]],"date-time":"2018-05-08T03:17:02Z","timestamp":1525749422000},"page":"6","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":44,"title":["Prevalence and Risk Factors of Amblyopia among Refractive Errors in an Eastern European Population"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"54","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4950-9962","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Valeria","family":"Mocanu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology, Victor Babes University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 300041 Timisoara, Romania"},{"name":"Clinic of Paediatric Surgery, Emergency Children\u2019s Hospital Louis Turcanu, 300011 Timisoara, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Raluca","family":"Horhat","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Clinic of Paediatric Surgery, Emergency Children\u2019s Hospital Louis Turcanu, 300011 Timisoara, Romania"},{"name":"Department of Biophysics, Victor Babes University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 300041 Timisoara, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,3,20]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"138","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ophtha.2011.06.024","article-title":"Amblyopia prevalence and risk factors in Australia preschool children","volume":"119","author":"Pai","year":"2012","journal-title":"Opthalmology"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"878","DOI":"10.1001\/archopht.124.6.878","article-title":"Causes and associations of amblyopia in a population-based sample of 6-year-old Australian children","volume":"124","author":"Robaei","year":"2006","journal-title":"Arch. 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