Refractive status primary school school children in Mopani district, Limpopo Province, South Africa

Abstract

This article reports part of the findings of a study carried out to determine the causes, prevalence, and distribution of ocular dis-orders among rural primary school children in Mopani district of Limpopo Province, South Africa. Three hundred and eighty eight children aged 8 to 15 years were randomly selected from five randomly selected schools. Non-cycloplegic retinoscopy and auto-refrac-tion were performed on each child. The preva-lence of hyperopia, myopia, and astigmatism was 73.1%, 2.5% and 31.3% respectively. Hyperopia (Nearest spherical equivalent power (FNSE) ranged from +0.75 to +3.50 D for the right and left eyes with means of +1.05 ± 0.35 D and +1.08 ± 0.34 D respectively.Myopia (FNSE) ranged from –0.50 to –1.75 D for the right eye and –0.50 to –2.25 D for the left eye with means of –0.75 ± 0.55 D and –0.93 ± 0.55 D respectively. Regression model for myopia, shows that age had an odds ratio of 1.94 (1.15 to 3.26), indicating a significant increased risk of myopia with increasing age. Correcting cylinders for the right eyes ranged from –0.25 to –4.50 D (mean = −0.67 ± 0.47 D) and for the left eyes from –0.25 to –2.50 D (mean = −0.60 ± 0.30 D). With-the-rule (WTR) astigmatism (66.5%) was more common, followed by against-the-rule (ATR)astigmatism (28.1%) and oblique (OBL) astigmatism (5.4%). With-the-rule astigmatism was more common in females than males; ATR astigmatism and OBL astigmatism werecommon in males. Regular vision screening programmes, appropriate referral and vision correction in primary schools in Mopani district are recommended in order to eliminate refractive errors among the children.

Prevalence of refractive error among school children in the Cape Coast Municipality, Ghana

“…In this study cycloplegic refraction was performed for the school children. This is different from the noncycloplegic refraction used by Mabaso et al 17 and Adegbehingbe et al 18 in their respective studies of school children in South Africa and Nigeria. Many studies on the subject have also used cycloplegic refraction in determining the refractive status For personal use only.…”

“…It is difficult to compare the prevalence of blindness and low vision in this study with other studies involving school children. This is because while the prevalence in this study is based on the ICD definition of blindness and low vision, other studies 6,7,9,17,20 computed the prevalence of VA of 20/40 (6/12) or worse.…”

Prevalence of refractive errors among junior high school students in the Ejisu Juaben municipality of Ghana

“…The multivariate analysis revealed a positive correlation between sex and refractive error. Previous studies conducted in other countries confirm the relationship between sex and refractive errors (Mabaso et al, 2006;Saad et al, 2007). Conversely, a study conducted among Nepalese childrenfound no sex difference (Pokharel et al, 2000).…”

“…To ensure that accommodation was relaxed, a + 1.50 D lens was used to fog the eye monocular during refraction. This protocol has been used by other studies in Nigeria and South Africa to study refractive errors in school children (Wedner et al, 2002;Adegbehingbe et al, 2005;and Mabaso et al, 2006).…”

'Urban insight’: is eye care neglect the exception or the rule?

“…[3] This study suggests that, in addition to lack of services, lack of awareness among parents and teachers may provide an additional barrier to children accessing eye care, even where services are available.…”