Study of prevalence and socio-demographic features of refractive error in children attending secondary school

Abstract

Introduction Poor performance in schooling due to refractive error is a major public health concern specially in rural areas of developing countries like India and globally, refractive error being the most common cause of visual impairment following cataract. Materials and Methods This study is a cross sectional study conducted to determine the prevalence of refractive errors in school going children in the rural setup of Kumbhari. Two schools were randomly selected from the 5 schools in the area. 400 students from these schools were selected by stratified random sampling for proportionate representation from each category, that is, the class the pupil studies in and sex. Results Mean age was found to be 11.13 years, 50.5% were females while 197 (49.5%) were males. It was observed that most of the students (68.5%) belonged to middle class (class III) and 20% to lower middle class (class IV). 73% had normal vision (6/6) in their right eye while 65.5% had normal vision (6/6) in their left eye. Considering visual acuity of less than 6/6, in the right eye, most of the students presented with visual acuity 6/9 (16.8%), followed by 6/12(3.2%) and 6/6 partial(3%). Similarly in the left eye, most of the students presented with visual acuity 6/9 (24.2%), followed by 6/6 partial (3.8%) and 6/12(3%). Conclusions Our study proves need for timely screening of school children, and creating awareness among the parents as well as the teachers as they are in close association with the students and are aware of their activities & change in learning skills.