A cross sectional study of epidemiology corresponding to refractive errors in school going children in urban areas of Hyderabad

Abstract

Introduction: There are estimated to be 1.4 million children in the world, 75% of whom live in low-income countries. Approximately, 80% of blindness is avoidable. The prevalence of the childhood blindness is estimated from 0.3 per 1000 children in the wealthy region of the world to 1.5 per 1000 children in the poorer countries/regions. Methodology: The study was conducted From January to June 2018, in Princess Esra Hospital, a 1000 bedded teaching hospital, situated in Hyderabad, providing specialized tertiary level health care services to all strata of people. Children studying in the high school in Government and Private school were selected for the present study, the children selected has a history of overall good health. Aims and Objectives: This planned study has been attempted with the accompanying targets, to concentrate on the predominance of refractive errors in school going children and to assess the etiologic proof. Results: The total of 540 children were included in the study with the history of overall good health, which includes 82 females and 25 males diagnosed with refractive errors, shows that prevalence of refractive errors are more in female than compare to males. Conclusion: In this study, it has been recorded that 19.8% of the screened school children have refractive errors. The results showed significant statistical difference regarding the prevalence of refractive errors between children of government and private schools.