The attitude towards strabismus and barriers for its treatment in parents from rural and urban areas

Abstract

It has been observed that children having strabismus who are being left untreated face a lot of psychosocial and functional difficulties in adulthood. In this study, an attitude and a barrier scale was structured and validated on the basis of the adult strabismus 20 questionnaire and a Barrier Scale. The attitude scale had two subscales-psychosocial subscale and functional subscale. A total of 1747 children; 828 from urban and 919 from rural areas, between the age group of 5 to 12 years were screened from urban and rural schools for strabismus. 36 children with strabismus were identified and studied on the basis of various parameters. None of these children had taken previous treatment for strabismus. The ratio of urban is to rural school children was 5:7 and the ratio between male and female was 7:5. 25 (69.4%) had exotropia, 11(30.6%) had esotropia among which 18(50%) had moderate degree of squint, 12(33.3%) had mild degree of squint. Mean Scores in the psychosocial subscale scale in Urban and rural areas were as 65.89±31.19 and 59.56±26.74 with p value 0.51. Mean Scores in Functional Subscale were as 77.63±32.58 and 66.67±31.66 with p value of 0.31. The most important barrier for treatment was the unawareness of the treatment of strabismus at the appropriate time. The attitude of parents towards strabismus was based on an amalgamation of multiple variables like age of the child, amount of squint, type of squint and also the gender of the child.

Gender differences in horizontal strabismus: Systematic review and meta-analysis shows no difference in prevalence, but gender bias towards females in the clinic

“…We found 739 records with quantitative information on horizontal strabismus, 427 were population-based, and 312 were clinic-based ( Figure 1 ). Among the 427 population-based studies that reported on the prevalence of horizontal strabismus, 74 (17.33%) disclosed the distribution by gender in cohorts and in cases [ 10 , 14 - 16 , 22 , 25 , 32 - 98 ]. One of these studies was removed because it exclusively examined people above the age of 50 years [ 63 ].…”

“…Are parents more worried about strabismus in their daughters than in their sons? Indeed, several studies indicate that parents are more concerned about the looks of their daughters than their sons [ 11 , 23 , 25 ]. Since strabismus is mostly diagnosed and treated in childhood, this points to the parents as the decision makers and to the contribution of the parents as a source of the gender bias.…”

“…Importantly, no previous study has explored whether there is a gender difference between the prevalence of horizontal strabismus (according to population-based studies) and the frequency with which patients seek medical attention (according to clinic-based studies). It is conceivable that gender differences in the diagnosis and treatment of horizontal strabismus may reflect cultural beliefs and norms that differ between populations [ 9 , 11 , 23 - 25 ]. To resolve these questions, we conducted a systematic review of population- and clinic-based studies on horizontal strabismus.…”

Psychological and Social Challenges Parents of Children With Strabismus Face in Qassim Region, Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…The study concluded that some parents, specifically the less educated ones, showed a lack of understanding of strabismus, leading to a late diagnosis and ineffective countermeasures toward the disease. Contradicting these reports, a study carried out among Indian parents in urban areas [ 13 ] found that many of the parents (53.3%) were not concerned about what people think about their children's eyes, and nearly half of them (47.7%) never thought that people noticed their child's eyes unless they said something about it.…”