Prevalence of Ocular Morbidities among School Children in a Rural Area of South India
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Abstract:
Schools are ideal setting to
implement screening services for eye healthcare program. We conducted a study
in schools around the Primary Health Centre Sampaje which is under the KVG
Medical College, Sullia with objectives of appraising various ocular symptoms
in the children and studying the prevalence of refractive errors, squint,
vitamin A deficiency, conjunctivitis and color blindness among the children.
This was a cross sectional
study conducted between July and October 2009 using a predesigned structured
questionnaire and ocular examination on a total number of 1938 students
attending 30 schools in the Sampaje Primary Health Centre (PHC) area.
Prevalence of total ocular morbidity was 20.12% of which Refractive errors
constituted 17.1%. (Myopia 16.9% and Hyperopia 0.20%), Squint 2.1%, Vitamin A
deficiency 0.6%, Conjunctivitis and Color blindness 0.5%. An alarming
prevalence of ocular morbidity of about 20% was demonstrated in the present
study.
Also,
since majority of children (76%) with ocular morbidity in the present study
were asymptomatic, the need for active screening of all school going children
for the various ocular morbidities is imperative.
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