Vundi Krishna Kumari1, Manem Suryaprabha Lakshmi2
BACKGROUND
Refractive error is one of the most common causes of visual impairment around the world and the second leading cause of treatable blindness. Due to the high magnitude of uncorrected refractive errors, myopia is considered as one of the important public health problems, especially in the urban population in India. It has been given high priority under the National Programme for Control of Blindness.
AIM
The aim of the present study is to know the prevalence of myopia and assess the degree of myopia among school going children.
SETTINGS AND DESIGN
Cross-sectional study done for one year.
METHODS AND MATERIAL
Age group of children 13-15 years, a total of 1600 were included in the study. Refractive error was tested using Snellen’s chart, Pin hole test, Occluder, Retinoscope. Statistical Analysis was done using the Epi Info version 7.
RESULTS
The prevalence of refractive errors was more in private schools (28.6%) than in government schools (23%). It was observed that myopia was the major refractive error (89.8%) among total refractive errors, followed by astigmatism (6.1%) and hypermetropia (4.1%). In myopic children, both eyes were involved in 71.5%, right eye alone in 16.4%. Only 60% (478) and 98.4% (788) have undergone eye checkups yearly once, 36% and 0.3% didn’t have eye checkups so far in private and government schools respectively.
CONCLUSION
We conclude that prevalence of refractive errors more in private schools than government schools and myopia is the major among refractive errors. In most of them both the eyes are involved. Bitot’s spots were more in government schools, suggesting the need of vitamin A supplementation.
