Introduction:

Refractive errors can have important repercussions in the performance of an individual, especially in the pediatric community.

Objective:

To determine the prevalence of refractive errors within a sample of 112 children between the ages of 2 and 14 from the Colegio La Candelaria in the city of Bogotá.

Methods:

Cross-sectional study that evaluated through visual acuity, ocular motility, ophthalmoscopy, retinoscopy, and subjective exam, the visual capacity of the children in question.

Results:

We found a prevalence of refractive errors of 18.8% where 13.4% represented astigmatism, 3.6% hypermetropia and 1.8% myopia.

Discussion:

These results were compared with those exposed on a thesis performed in 1973 by which patients with similar conditions were tested. In this study, the refractive errors were of 30.48%, a difference that can be explained by variations in population characteristics. Lastly, it arises the need of screening in other communities.

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