Volume : 7, Issue : 2, February - 2018

Analysis of different type of Refractive Errors in Primary School Children at tertiary hospital

Dr Apurva Suthar, Dr Kishan Makawana

Abstract :

<p>&nbsp;</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%">Introduction:</span></b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%"> Approximately 12.8 million children in the age group 5-15 years are visually impaired<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">&nbsp; </span>from<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">&nbsp; </span>uncorrected<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">&nbsp; </span>or<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">&nbsp; </span>inadequately<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">&nbsp; </span>corrected refractive errors, estimating a global prevalence of 0.96%. Uncorrected refractive errors are responsible for up to 42% of the cases of visual impairment worldwide,and remain prevalent even in high income countries.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%">Objective:</span></b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes">&nbsp; </span>To assess the patern of refractve errors in primary school children at our hospital. Our study aims at evaluating the pattern of refractive errors in school age children in our hospital.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%">Method:</span></b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes">&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes">&nbsp;</span>All school going children of both genders aged 5 to 16 years attending the eye OPD of a tertiary care teaching hospital,<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">&nbsp; </span>under the school screening programme underwent visual acuity assessment and all other basic eye investigations. The present study is descriptive cross sectional study. All the primary school children attending the eye OPD of a tertiary care hospital for six month under the school health screening programme were included in the study.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%">Observations</span>:</b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%"> A total of 846 children between 5 and 16 years of age were included in the study. Out of these<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">&nbsp; </span>55% were males and 45.0% were females. Of the total 108 children with refractive error, myopia was present in 37.8% cases, hypermetropia in<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">&nbsp; </span>7.9% and astigmatism in 54.3% cases. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%">Conclusion</span></b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%">:<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">&nbsp; </span>Correction of refractive errors in early childhood impacts significant effect in health of individual and growth of nation in future. Improved<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">&nbsp; </span>utilization<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">&nbsp; </span>of<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">&nbsp; </span>existing<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">&nbsp; </span>eye<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">&nbsp; </span>care services and a public-private partnership in strengthening the health services is required.<o:p></o:p></span></p>