Edukasi Kesehatan Mata dan Skrining Tajam Penglihatan Anak Sekolah Pekerja Migran Indonesia di Penang, Malaysia

Abstract

Eye health problems, especially refractive errors, are becoming increasingly common among children. According to WHO data approximately 19 million children and adolescents aged 5 -15 years experience visual impairment and approximately 67% of them are due to uncorrected refractive errors (URE). Indonesian Migrant Workers (PMI) are Indonesian citizens working abroad, with the largest number being in Malaysia. Most of these Indonesian migrant workers work from early in the morning to late night, leading to their children being neglected not only in terms of education but also in terms of health. Parents work while their children are left alone, accompanied only by electronic devices/ gawai. This situation puts their health status vulnerable including their eyes. Based on this condition, The Faculty of Medicine Universitas Trisakti in collaboration with the Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia in Penang held a community service activity/ PKM in the form of eye health education and visual acuity screening for PMI children. This activity was carried out in three stages; 1)preparation, 2)implementation, and 3)evaluation and included: 1)counseling/ education on the importance of maintaining eye health and 2)vision examination/ visual acuity screening. Respondents in this activity were PMI children who live in Penang and its surroundings with an age range of 5-16 years. The questionnaire in this PKM consisted of 15 questions adapted from the standard questionnaire of the Free Health Check (CKG) of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia, the Asthenopia Survey Questionnaire-17 items (ASQ-17), and the Computer Vision Syndrome Questionnaire (CVS-Q). The questionnaire was made digitally using Google forms and distributed to 75 respondents (33 boys and 42 girls). The visual acuity test was carried out and the results were obtained for 38 respondents. This PKM activity results the following information: 1) The largest age group was 9-10 years old with 24 (32.0%) children, 2) Screen time duration in children was found 2 hours in 51 (68.0%) children, 2-4 hours in 13 (17.3%) children, 4-6 hours in 4 (5.3%) children, more than 6 hours in 6 (8.0%) children, 3) Diagnosis of eye abnormalities was found in the form of: a) refractive anomalies in 14 (36.8%) children and b) suspected amblyopia in 7 (18.4%) children, and 4) Level of understanding of maintaining eye health with the following categories: a) “less” as many as 7 (9.3%) children, b) “sufficient” as many as 23 (30.7%) children, c) “good” as many as 32 (42.7%) children, and d) “very good” as many as 13 (7.3%) children. The conclusion of this PKM activity is: 1) educational activities about the dangers of excessive exposure to gadgets and visual acuity screening in school-aged children have proven to be quite effective to increasing the understanding of the importance of maintaining eye health among school-aged children, 2) the results of the eye examination in the form of visual impairment the occurs in PMI children require a more in-depth follow-up plan in the form of routine health checks that can be facilitated by the Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia.