Prevalence of myopia among school going children
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18203/2320-6012.ijrms20150688Keywords:
Myopia, Visual acuity, School childrenAbstract
Background: Poor vision in childhood affects performance in school or at work and has a negative influence on the future life of the child. Moreover planning of a youth’s career is very much dependent on the visual acuity, especially in jobs for navy, military, railways and aviation. This warrants early detection and treatment of refractive errors to prevent permanent disability.Hence present study was planned with the objective to determine, the prevalence of myopia among school children.
Methods: An institution based cross sectional study was carried out among primary and high school children of 7 – 15 years of age. A total of 4429 children were studied over a period of one year. Visual acuity was performed among all children. Myopic children were referred for further evaluation and management. Data was entered in excel and analyzed using proportions and chi square test.
Results: The prevalence of myopia was 6%. It was more among girls 155 (58.27%) than boys 111 (41.73%) were boys. 91.73% had bilateral myopia. Visual acuity improved in 95% of cases after correction. Myopia was more common among social class IV compared to social class VI.
Conclusions: Early diagnosis and visual rehabilitation of myopic students can be achieved by periodic eye examination at regular intervals by school teachers and basic health workers and this can help in preventing the development of amblyopia thereby reducing the burden of morbidity due to myopia.
References
Saw SM, Katz J, Schein OD, Chew SJ, Chan Tk. Epidemiology of Myopia. Epidemiol Rev. 1996;18:175-87.
Kalikivayi V, Naduvilath TJ, Bansal AK, Dandona L. Visual impairment in School children in southern India. India J Ophthalmol. 1997;45:129-34.
Wedner SH, Ross DA, Todd J, Anemona A, Balira R, Foster A. Myopia in secondary school students in Mwanza City, Tanzania: the need for a national screening programme. BR J Ophthalmol. 2002;86:1200-6.
Nepal BP, Koirala S, Adhikary S, Sharma AK. Ocular morbidity in school children in Kathmandu. Br J Ophthalmol. 2003;87:531-4.
Fotouhi A, Hashemi H, Khabazkhood M, Mohammad K. The prevalence of refractive errors among schoolchildren in Dezful, Iran. 2007;91:287-92.
Luwnaga SK, Lemeshow S. Sample size determination in health studies, WHO, Geneva. 1991;25.
Agarwal AK. Social Classification: The Need to Update in the Present Scenario. India J Community Med. 2008;33(1)50-1.
Lithander J. Prevalence of myopia in school children in the Sultanate of Oman: A nation-wide study of 6292 randomly selected children. Acta Ophthalmol Scand. 1999;77:306-9.
Zhao J, Pan X, Sui R, Munoz SR, Sperduto RD, Ellwein LB. Refractive Error Study in Children: Results from Shunyi District, China. Am J Ophthalmol. 2000;129:427-35.
Pokharel GP, Negrel AD, Munoz SR, Ellwein LB. Refractive Error Study in Children: Results from Mechi Zone, Nepal. Am J Ophthalmol. 2000;129:436-44.
Maul E, Barosso S, Munoz SRSperduto RD, Ellwein LB. Refractive Error Study in Children: Results from LaFloride, Chile. Am J Ophthalmol. 2000;129:445-54.
Dandona R, Dandona L, Srinivas M, Sahare P, Narsaiah S, Munoz SR, et al. Refractive Eerror in Children in a rural Population in India. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2002;43:615-22.
Murthy GVS, Gupta SK, Ellwein LB, Munoz SR, Pokharel GP, Sanga L. et al. Refractive error in children in an urban in an urban population in New Delhi. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2002;43:623-31.
Naidoo KS, Raghunandan A, Mashige KP et al. Refractive Error and Visual Impairment in African Children in South Africa. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2003;44:3764-70.
Lin LL Shih YF, Tsai CB. Et al. Epidemiology study of refraction among school children in Taiwan in 1995. Optom Vis Sci. 1999;76:275-81.
Chandra DB, Swarup D, Srivatsava RK. Prevalence and pattern along with socio-economic factors of myopia in school going children 8 to 16 years. India J Ophthalmol. 1983;30:517-8.
Sperduto RD, Seigel D, Robert J, Rowland M, Prevalence of myopia in the United States. Arch Ophthalmol. 1983;101:405-7.
Sethi S, Kartha GP. Prevalence of refractive errors in School Children (12-17 years) of Ahmadabad City. India J Community Med. 2000;25(4):181-3.
Wong TY, Loon SC, Saw SM. The epidemiology of age related eye disease in Asia. Br J Ophthalmol. 2006;90:506-11.
Mavracanas TA, Mandalos A, Peios D, Golias V, Megalou K, Gregoriadou A. et al. prevalence of myopia in a sample of Greek students. Acta Ophthalmol Scand. 2000;78:656-9.
