Pattern of Refractive Error in Primary School Children in Rupandehi District, Nepal

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Refractive error remains one of the primary causes of visual impairment in children worldwide. This study describes pattern of refractive errors among primary school students in Rupandehi district, Nepal.MATERIAL AND METHODS: Records of 128 children with refractive error aged 5-15 years from both urban and rural areas in Nepal between January and March 2011 were examined for patterns in the distribution of refractive errors. SPSS statistical software was used to perform analysis.RESULTS: The commonest type of refractive errors among the children was astigmatism (47%) followed by myopia (26%) and hyperopia (19%). Children in the age group 11-15 years had higher number of eyes with refractive error as compared to their younger counterparts 5 years /or below 5 years (49% vs. 9%). 71% students were from schools located in rural areas. Among the children with refractive errors, only 44.5% students were wearing glasses. 57% of the students studying in private schools were wearing glasses but only 26.9% students from the government school were wearing glasses.CONCLUSION: A wide variation in the distribution of refractive errors between the geographic locations, gender basis, types of schools as well as between the different ethnic groups was observed.Journal of Universal College of Medical Sciences Vol. 3, No. 1, 2015: 31-36

Pattern of Refractive Errors in School Children in Rural Town of Bareilly District

“…This is comparable with the study of Rai et al 9 Pavithra et al 4 and Matta S et al 8 observed myopia to be the most common refractive error. Medi et al 10 showed commonest refractive error was astigmatism (52%) followed by hypermetropia (37%) and least common was myopia (11%).…”

Prevalence of refractive errors among the school-going children in East Sikkim

“…Myopia was the most common refractive error (31.1%) followed by astigmatism (29.4%), and hyperopia (2.6%) being the least and many studies have reported similar results. [ 8 13 20 21 22 23 ]…”

“…[ 23 ] in 2006 and Rai SK et al . [ 20 ] in 2015, refractive error varies with ethnicity. Various components like nutrition, lifestyle, and hereditary might be involved in contributing to the rise of refractive errors.…”

Pattern of Refractive Errors in Primary School Children in Dehradun City of Uttrakhand State

“…They found that the commonest refractive error among school children was astigmatism , followed by myopia (26%) and then hypermetropia (19%). 28 Pavithra et al in Bangalore, 21 Sethi S et al among school children of Ahmedabad, 22 and S Matta et al among the adolescents attending outpatient department of ophthalmology in New Delhi, 23 concluded that myopia was the most common refractive error among school children followed by astigmatism and hypermetropia. A study conducted by Medi K et al in Kampala district showed that the commonest refractive error was astigmatism (52%), followed by hypermetropia (37%) children and myopia (11%).…”