"Astigmatism Varies Among Age, Gender, Ethnic, and Education Groups" - Marie Benz, MD, FAAD
Sumayya Ahmad, MD, assistant professor of ophthalmology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, discusses her recent study. “About 30 percent of eyes have astigmatism, in which the cornea is shaped like a football, or elongated in one axis. If the longest diameter is up and down, we call that with the rule astigmatism, and if it is to the side, we call that against-the rule astigmatism.” She added, “There are clear differences in astigmatism between groups of people, and it’s not clear why. We have speculations as to why these trends exist, but because we looked at a general population, it is difficult to extrapolate these results to individual people. However, it is useful for a cataract surgeon to know that, for instance, women tend to have more WTR astigmatism than men and tend to have it for longer during their lives.”
— Sumayya Ahmad, MD, Assistant Professor, Ophthalmology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai