To investigate the prevalence and predictors of pseudomyopia in Chinese children and its association with myopia progression.A prospective, school-based, cohort study of 6- and 13-year-old children was conducted in Anyang, China. Pre-cycloplegic and post-cycloplegic autorefraction were performed at baseline and 1 year later. Pseudomyopia was defined as spherical equivalent refractive (SER) error in the better-seeing eye ≤-0.50 D before cycloplegia and >-0.50 D after cycloplegia. Among pseudomyopic children, pseudomyopic power was defined as non-cycloplegic SER subtracted from cycloplegic SER. Market survey was collected in all optometry stores in Anyang city to investigate how cycloplegia is used for refracting children.A total of 2612 children aged 6 years and 1984 children aged 13 years were included. Of the two cohorts, median cycloplegic SER (IQR) was 1.00 D (0.50, 1.38) and -1.13 D (-2.63, 0.13) respectively, myopia prevalence was 5.2% and 61.0%, pseudomyopia prevalence was 24.1% and 18.9%, and median pseudomyopic power was 1.13 D (0.63, 1.63) and 0.38 D (0.13, 0.88). In both cohorts, greater baseline hyperopia was the strongest predictor of pseudomyopia (p<0.001), whereas time spent on near work was not associated with pseudomyopic power (p>0.05). After 1 year, 15.6% (98/629) of 6-year-olds and 10.7% (40/374) of 13-year-olds with pseudomyopia developed myopia. Compared with myopes, pseudomyopic children with the same pre-cycloplegic SER had slower myopic progression (p<0.001). Among all 127 optometry stores in Anyang, only 4 (3.15%) used cycloplegia for refracting children.Pseudomyopia is more prevalent in younger, more hyperopic children. Pseudomyopia is not an independent risk factor for myopic progression in this setting.© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.