Background: There are almost 12 million children in Peru, and no studies regarding the prevalence of ametropia or amblyopia in school children have ever been reported.Objetives: To determine the epidemiologic characteristics and current therapy strategies for severe ametropia and amblyopia in students from limited-resource families in Southern Lima, Peru.Material and methods: A significant sample representative of 120,000 children from 42 schools in five districts of Southern Lima was assessed. The study was performed in three stages. The first one was a cross-sectional and observational survey, assessing visual acuity and performing refraction testing in 12,364 students. The second stage consisted in follow-up assessments in students with moderate and severe ametropy, aiming to confirm their ametropy degree and its respective cyclopegic refraction. The third stage detecte...

Background: There are almost 12 million children in Peru, and no studies regarding the prevalence of ametropia or amblyopia in school children have ever been reported.Objetives: To determine the epidemiologic characteristics and current therapy strategies for severe ametropia and amblyopia in students from limited-resource families in Southern Lima, Peru.Material and methods: A significant sample representative of 120,000 children from 42 schools in five districts of Southern Lima was assessed. The study was performed in three stages. The first one was a cross-sectional and observational survey, assessing visual acuity and performing refraction testing in 12,364 students. The second stage consisted in follow-up assessments in students with moderate and severe ametropy, aiming to confirm their ametropy degree and its respective cyclopegic refraction. The third stage detecte...