Prevalence of refractive errors among school children in Gondar town, northwest Ethiopia

Abstract

Purpose:Many children with poor vision due to refractive error remain undiagnosed and perform poorly in school. The situation is worse in the Sub-Saharan Africa, including Ethiopia, and current information is lacking. The objective of this study is to determine the prevalence of refractive error among children enrolled in elementary schools in Gondar town, Ethiopia.Materials and Methods:This was a cross-sectional study of 1852 students in 8 elementary schools. Subjects were selected by multistage random sampling. The study parameters were visual acuity (VA) evaluation and ocular examination. VA was measured by staff optometrists with the Snellen E-chart while students with subnormal vision were examined using pinhole, retinoscopy evaluation and subjective refraction by ophthalmologists.Results:The study cohort was comprised of 45.8% males and 54.2% females from 8 randomly selected elementary schools with a response rate of 93%. Refractive errors in either eye were present in 174 (9.4%) children. Of these, myopia was diagnosed in 55 (31.6%) children in the right and left eyes followed by hyperopia in 46 (26.4%) and 39 (22.4%) in the right and left eyes respectively. Low myopia was the most common refractive error in 61 (49.2%) and 68 (50%) children for the right and left eyes respectively.Conclusions:Refractive error among children is a common problem in Gondar town and needs to be assessed at every health evaluation of school children for timely treatment.

Uncorrected refractive error and associated factors among primary school children in Debre Markos District, Northwest Ethiopia

“…The slight difference could be due to difference in environment and socioeconomic conditions such as advancement in educational materials like computers. The finding was also in line with study results from Gondar town [12]. This finding is very lower than the finding from Cape Coast, Ghana in 2010 [13].…”

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“…(11) However, higher relative proportion of hypermetropia compared to myopia was found in the Ethiopia study. (16) A similar pattern of higher proportion of astigmatism (6.1%) and hypermetropia (4.3%) compared to myopia (1.3%) was found in Uganda study. (10) Thus in studies in various parts of India generally showed higher prevalence of myopia and astigmatism compared to hypermetropia while in Africa, the proportion of hypermetropia was found to be higher than myopia and astigmatism.…”

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“…This study shows that error of refractions among young students in schools is considerably high about 38.9%, this result is much higher than the result found in another study [8] which stated that Refractive errors in either eye were present in 174 (9.4%) children. Of these, myopia was diagnosed in 55 (31.6%) children in the right and left eyes followed by hyperopia in 46 (26.4%) and 39 (22.4%) in the right and left eyes respectively.…”