Ocular Morbidity in School Children in Western part of Maharashtra

Abstract

Title of the article: Ocular Morbidity in School Children in Western part of Maharashtra

Context: The control of childhood blindness is one of the most important priorities of Vision 2020 - since disability adjusted life years (DALY) loss in a blind child is much more than that of adult.

Aims: To know the prevalence and types of ocular morbidity among school children in a Rural Medical College Hospital. Settings and Design: Cross-sectional hospital-based study was carried out at tertiary Institute after Ethical Committee approval.

Material and Methods: A total of 504 school children visiting ophthalmology and paediatric outpatient department of hospital, satisfying the inclusion criteria were included in the study. Informed consent and/or assent were taken as required.

Demographic data, past medical history, pre-existing ocular conditions and  patients symptoms were recorded. Visual acuity, refraction ,detailed ocular examination including fundus examination was done and findings were documented in the Performa and analysed using SPSS software.

Results:

Refractive error as ocular morbidity (20.24%) was highest followed by strabismus (2.38%), conjunctivitis (1.59%), trachoma (0.79%), Vitamin A deficiency (0.99%) and Ptosis (0.4%), Chalazion(0.59%) and Stye (0.4% ) .For strabismus, conjunctivitis , trachoma , Vit A deficiency(0.99% ) , chalazion etc no statistical difference was found in different age groups and sex. (P>0.05)Conclusion: The present study observed high prevalence of ocular morbidity(27.38% )among school children with Refractive errors as  the most common ocular disorder. Key-words: ocular morbidity and children, paediatric blindness, refractive errors and children