Purpose: High-contrast resolution acuity in the peripheral retina has been shown to be sampling-limited, however, a recent study indicates that peripheral low-contrast resolution acuity (PLCRA) is degraded by imposition of optical defocus. On the other hand, it has not been investigated whether refractive errors present in the peripheral field of normal, emmetropic eyes are sufficient to degrade PLCRA. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of peripheral refractive-correction on PLCRA in young emmetropes.Methods: Low-contrast (10 %) resolution acuity was measured off-axis (20° nasal visual field) on the right eyes of 10 emmetropic subjects (age 22 ± 2 years), both with and without peripheral refractive correction. Central and peripheral refractive errors were acquired using an open-field COAS-HD VR aberrometer. Stimuli, consisting of low-contrast Gabor patches with a visible diameter of 2°, were presented on a CRT monitor situated 3.0 meters from the subjects. Resolution thresholds were determined using a 2-alternative forced-choice Bayesian algorithm.Results: All the subjects had off-axis astigmatism (against-the-rule) at 20° in the nasal visual field ranging from -1.00 DC to -2.00 DC; of which four had -1.00 DC, three had -1.25 DC, one had -1.50 DC and the remaining two had -2.00 DC. Two of the subjects with -1.25 DC had -0.50 DS to -0.75 DS spherical errors; the rest had purely cylindrical errors. The mean uncorrected and corrected low-contrast resolution acuities for all subjects were 0.92 logMAR and 0.86 logMAR respectively. This shows an improvement in resolution acuity of 0.06 logMAR (p = 0.028) after correction of off-axis refractive errors. However when grouped according to the amount of astigmatism, the -1.00 DC group showed no difference in acuity with correction, the -1.25 DC, -1.50 DC and -2.00 DC groups improved on average by 0.05, 0.14 and 0.16 logMAR respectively.Conclusions: Correction of off-axis refractive errors had a positive effect on low-contrast resolution thresholds in the peripheral visual field on the emmetropic subjects in this study. Moreover, the effects become appreciable only for those subjects having larger degrees of astigmatism. This suggests that optical factors influence peripheral visual tasks involving low-contrast. There may be benefits in correcting even moderate amounts of off-axis refractive errors, especially for people who rely on optimal peripheral visual function.