Abstract:

Objectives: To identify methods of refractive error correction preferred by adolescents in the rural region of India.

Materials and Methods: A quantitative cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study was conducted to investigate the choices of refractive correction among teenagers in the junior college, rural district of India. A purposive sampling was done to complete the required sample size. Inclusion criteria for the study was considered as, students who enrolled in the four majors of programme i.e., BiPC (biology, physics and chemistry), MPC(maths, physics and chemistry), HEC (history, economics and civics), CEC(commerce, economics and civics) and Vocational; including CS&E (computer science and Engineering) and A&T(accountancy and taxation). Age ranged from 16-18 yrs. Exclusion criteria; students who were over 18 yrs. were excluded from the study. A self-designed questionnaire was used to obtain the data. Content validation and test-retest were conducted prior to administration of the questionnaire.

Results: Total N= 631 participants from four majors were included in the research. The results reveal a 57% of the samples preferred spectacle lens to correct refractive error closely followed by 41.5% of adolescents choosing contact lenses. Contraindication (46.1%) was suggested as a hindrance to the use of contact lens while only 15.5% chose affordability and (38.4%) listed as an occupation is the key factor to not to use contact lenses for correcting refractive error. Most salient features in the research are that more than half of the population considered eye hospital as the healthcare facility to seek in case of inadequate vision.

Conclusion: The study concludes that there is a lack of awareness related to primary eye care among the said population, emphasizing the role of eye care professionals in the public health sector.

Keyword: Preferences, Refractive Error, Adolescents, Refractive Correction, and Methods.

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