Epidemiological study of eye diseases in Primary School Children in private schools in Vindhya Region
Main Article Content
Keywords
Vindhya, extraocular, retinoscopy, myopia, astigmatism
Abstract
Background and Objective: Timely diagnosis and treatment of ophthalmic disorders in children are vital to meet the challenges of childhood blindness. This study aims to know the pattern and prevalence of ophthalmic diseases prevalent in primary school children studying in private schools of Vindhya region.
Method: This study was conducted to 1300 students studying in private schools of Vindhya region. A detailed history was obtained from the children concerning the age, sex, gender, class, a row in class and presence of any known ocular disorder. A comprehensive ocular examination was carried out including visual acuity, pen torch examination, slit lamp biomicroscopy, cover-uncover tests, extraocular movements, retinoscopy and fundus examination. Result and Discussion: A total of 1300 children were screened. Overall male to female ratio was 1.27:1. The mean age was 7.5 ±1.25 years. The most common ocular disorder found was refractive errors (41.38%), allergic conjunctivitis (18.5%), corneal opacity (14.4%) and squint (8.4%). Other eye disorders were glaucoma (5.6%), ptosis (4.9%), color blindness (3.6%) and syle (2.9%). Myopia (43.68%) was the most common spherical refractive error detected while myopic astigmatism was the most common type of astigmatic errors. Mixed astigmatism was the least common error (8.53%) observed.
Conclusion: We concluded that ophthalmological screening programmes could identify previously undiagnosed ocular problems in the primary school age children. Thus it is worthwhile to conduct ophthalmological screening programmes for primary school children along with immediate referral and follow up.
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