A Survey of the Prevalence of Refractive Errors among Children in Lower Primary Schools in Darnah City, Libya

Abstract

Introduction: Refractive error is a one of the most common problem among children which may lead to blindness. Refractive errors cannot be prevented, but they can be diagnosed early by a routine eye examination and treated with corrective glasses, contact lenses or refractive surgery.Objective: To determine the prevalence of refractive errors among school children attending lower primary school in Darnah city eastern part of Libya and the frequency of the various types of refractive errors, and their associated to selected demographic variables among school children. Materials and Methods:The research design adopted for this study was nonexperimental Descriptive in terms of analysis and Cross Sectional in terms of time frame. The study was conducted at selected school with 10 samples. The samples who met the inclusion criteria were selected by using convenient sampling technique. The tool used for the study was demographic variable and checklist to assess the factors associated with refractive error.Result: A total of 1000 children from 10 schools were randomly selected. However 920 were examined. Mean age of the students was 9.53±1.5. Refractive error was associated with female sex (107) one hundred seven children had a significant refractive error of ±0.50 or worse in one or both eyes, giving a prevalence of 11.6% and the commonest refractive error was hypermetropia which accounted for (57) 53.2% of all errors. This was followed by astigmatism with 34 (31.7%) children and myopia with 16 (14.9%). Conclusion:Refractive error needs careful evaluation and preventive care for children which leads to impaired quality of life and interfere with their daily lifestyle. Assessing the risk factor will help us to prevent and control the problem of refractive error in future generation which is helpful for the students to live a life problem free life. Keywords:

Magnitude of refractive errors in children in tertiary care hospital of western Nepal

“…[8][9][10][11][12] This finding was also similar with the study done in Libya which showed 51.9% females and 45.7% males. 13 However, this study finding is different from the study done in both Nepal and India which reported more male participants than female participants. [14][15][16][17] Maximum female participants in the current study could be because young females report more visual symptoms and also attain puberty earlier as compared to males.…”

“…Similarly, the different studies also observed that maximum number of participants were from urban than rural area. 9,13,17,20 One study found more participants from the rural area. 15 The children living in urban areas have to do lot of near work activities and also the duration of outdoor games was less as compared to children from rural areas.…”

Regional variations and temporal trends of childhood myopia prevalence in Africa: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

“…A summary of the characteristics of studies included in the systematic review is presented in Table S2 . Briefly, seven studies were conducted in Ghana, 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 six in Ethiopia, 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 five in Nigeria, 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 four in South Africa, 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 three from Egypt, 20 , 60 , 61 two each in Kenya, 62 , 63 Burkina Faso 64 , 65 and Sudan, 66 , 67 and one each in Rwanda, 68 Tunisia, 69 Libya, 70 Somalia, 71 Tanzania, 72 Togo, 73 Equatorial Guinea, 74 Morocco, 75 Uganda, 76 Malawi 77 and Benin 78 (Figure 2 ). Forty of the studies were school‐based, and two were population‐based.…”

“… Muma et al (2009) 63 Y N Y N Y Y Y N Y Libya 23. Elmajri (2017) 70 Y N Y N N Y Y Y Y Malawi 24. Msiska et al (2009) 77 Y Y Y Y N Y Y Y Y …”

“…Heterogeneity: I 2 = 99%, τ 2 = 0.0148, p = 0 Wedner et al (2002) 72 Kawuma and Mayeku (2002) 76 Kassa and Alene (2003) 49 75 Ovenseri−Ogbomo and Omuemu (2010) 40 Ovenseri−Ogbomo and Assien (2010) 43 Yared et al (2012) 47 Jimenez et al (2012) 65 Mehari and Yimer (2013) 48 Kumah et al (2013) 42 Rushood et al (2013) 66 Saa et al ( 2013) 73 Kedir and Girma (2014) 46 Mohamed et al (2014) 20 Yamamah et al (2015) 60 Soler et al (2015) 74 Nakua et al (2015) 41 Semanyenzi et al (2015) 68 Abdul−Kabir et al ( 2016) 38 Nartey et al ( 2016) 39 Alrasheed et al ( 2016) 67 Chebil et al (2016) 69 Elmajri (2017) 70 Atowa et al (2017) 51 Wajuihian et al (2017) 58 Ngozika Ezinne et al (2018) 55 Arafa et al (2019) 61 Ebri et al (2019) 54 Ragot et al (2020) 62 Ogbonna (2020) 52 Gessesse and Teshome (2020) 45 Ahmed et al (2020) 71 Magakwe et al (2020) 59 Ezegwui et al (2021) 53 Asare and Morjaria (2021) 44 Assem et al (2021) 50…”