Characterization of Refractive Errors in a Population of Children from 2 to 14 Years of Age in Bogotá, Colombia*
<p><strong>Introduction</strong>: Refractive errors can have important repercussions in the performance of an individual, especially in the pediatric community. <strong>Objective</strong>: 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. <strong>Methods</strong>: Cross-sectional study that evaluated through visual acuity, ocular motility, ophthalmoscopy, retinoscopy, and subjective exam, the visual capacity of the children in question. <strong>Results</strong>: We found a prevalence of refractive errors of 18.8% where 13.4% represented astigmatism, 3.6% hypermetropia and 1.8% myopia. <strong>Discussion</strong>: 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.</p>