Prevalence of myopia in school children in the Sultanate of Oman, A nation‐wide study of 6292 randomly selected children

Abstract

ABSTRACT.Purpose: Between 1992 to 1994 in the Sultanate of Oman, 6292 randomly selected school children from Grade 1 (6-year-olds) and Grade 6 (12-year-olds) were examined for visual acuity. The purpose of this paper is to present results that relate to the prevalence of myopia in this population. Methods: All children with uncorrected visual acuity below 0.5 in one or both eyes received a thorough eye examination including cycloplegic retinoscopy. Results: In the 6-year-olds there was an overall myopia (ت1.0 D) of 0.56% and in the 12-year-olds there was 5.16%. In rural, remote areas there was statistically significantly less myopia in the older group when compared with the rest of the country. In the town of Nizwa in the region of Dakhlia, the value for high myopia (ت7.0 diopters) in 12-year-old girls was 2.82% compared to an average prevalence 0.13%. Conclusion: In the Sultanate of Oman the prevalence of myopia showed consistency with findings in Europe and North America. There was significantly less myopia in remote areas. An increased prevalence of high myopia was seen in one of Oman's major cities.

Loss of visual acuity due to eye injuries among 6292 school children in the Sultanate of Oman

“…This paper reports causes of eye damage due to injuries among 6292 school children in Grades 1 and 6. Visual impairment from other reasons such as amblyopia or myopia has previously been reported (Lithander 1998(Lithander , 1999. Vernal keratoconjunctivitis and trachoma are common disorders in this part of the world; these findings will be reported separately later.…”

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

“…Although worldwide geographic and ethnic differences in the prevalence of childhood refractive error are well recognized [31][32][33][34][35][36][37], meaningful comparisons between reports in the literature are problematic. The difficulty arises because of different or inadequately described survey and examination methods (such as whether cycloplegia was used), unclear or no uniform definitions for hyperopia and myopia, and differences underlying the age and gender mix of the populations studied.…”

The age- and gender-specific prevalences of refractive errors in Tehran: the Tehran Eye Study

“…Some have shown that a significant proportion of the population is visually impaired because of inadequately corrected refractive errors. 1,6,7,10,25 A few of these surveys have been from our region, 11 but there has been no population-based survey investigating refractive status in Iran. Population-based studies have revealed substantial variations in distribution of refractive errors in relation to ethnicity, educational level, age, gender, and socio-economic status.…”