Prevalence of Refractive Error Among Early Primary School Age Children in Ado-Odo Ota Local Government Area, Nigeria.

Abstract

Introduction Refractive error is one of the major causes of blurred vision. It is a common eye disorder even in children. The World Health Organization had estimated refractive error to cause visual impairment to about 153 million people around the world with over 1.4 million children affected. Eighty percent (80%) of whom live in developing countries. The right to sight, a global initiative launched by World Health Organization, has the main aim of eliminating avoidable visual impairment and blindness at a global level. In order to achieve this goal, visual screening in pre-school and school children has long been a tradition in developed nations of the world. The significance of this cannot be overemphasized, especially with the already established correlation between school performance and visual status. However, in developing countries visual screening for children is not yet well established, thereby leaving many children with undetected refractive error, which could result in visual impairment. This study was aimed at evaluating the prevalence of refractive error among early primary school age children at Ado-Odo Ota Local Government Area(LGA) in Ogun State, Nigeria. Methodology: The study was designed as a cross-sectional study. It employed a multi-staged sampling method to recruit 205 pupils aged 5-9 years attending schools in Ado-Odo Ota as study participants to determine the prevalence of refractive error among the pupils attending primary schools in this area. Following ocular pathology screening for the children, subjects found fit were refracted both objectively and subjectively using auto-refractor and trial lenses respectively. Result: A prevalence of 30.73% of refractive error was recorded. Myopia had the highest prevalence (24.88%), followed by astigmatism 3.42% and hyperopia with the least prevalence of 2.44%. Older children had higher frequencies of refractive error than the younger ones with the males having more refractive error than the females (19.51% and 11.22%) respectively. Conclusion: The study concluded that refractive error is significantly present among this population and recommended that parents should ensure that their children are screened for refractive error, and that government should introduce school health programs to curb the growing menace of visual impairment due to uncorrected refractive error.

Prevalence and determinants of refractive errors at Sekororo District Hospital in Limpopo Province, South Africa

“…For example, the prevalence of myopia in the right and left eyes is larger than that for previous studies with the prevalence ranging from 4% to 7% conducted inside and outside Africa 19,22,27,35,36,37,38,39,40,41 but is smaller than that of other studies where the prevalence ranged from 27% to 33.8%. 15,22,27,30,37,42,43,44,45,46 The prevalence of hyperopia for the right and left eyes of the present study in both stratified random samples (for 2018 and 2019) is not similar where the prevalence of hyperopia ranges from 3.8% to 7.53% to that of other studies conducted outside and inside the border of Africa. The prevalence of hyperopia for the right and left eyes of the present study in two samples is larger than that of other studies where the prevalence ranges from 4.5% to 6.5% 15,18,26,28,30,34,35,36,39,43,45,47,48 but is smaller than that of other studies that were conducted outside the African continent (with the prevalence ranging from 8% to 53.3%).…”

“…19,20 The prevalence of refractive errors for the right and left eyes of the present study in two samples is smaller than that of other previous studies in Africa, where the prevalence ranges from 96.2% to 97.5% 21,22 and larger than that of other previous studies in Africa with the prevalence range of 12.9% -97.5%. 23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34 The difference in the prevalence of refractive errors for present and previous studies could be the result of a larger or smaller population, as well as the research design.…”

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.…”

“… Atowa et al (2017) 51 Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y 27. Ogbonna (2020) 52 Y Y Y Y Y Y N Y Y 28. Ezegwui et al (2021) 53 Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y U 29.…”

“…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…”