Study of refractive errors in medical students

Abstract

Introduction: Refractive errors are apparently more prevalent among the high educational group and have become a huge economic and social burden. 1 Materials and Methods: The study was conducted at Era's Lucknow Medical College and Hospital and included 420 medical students of consecutive 4ys (2013)(2014)(2015)(2016). Refractive error was assessed under cycloplegia using Snellen's visual acquity drum and streak retinoscope. The students were categorized according to their refractive error and the prevalence was calculated. Results: Of 420 students 54% had refractive error. Of these 77.7% had myopia, 8.4% had hypermetropia and 1.7% had astigmatism. Myopes were further divided into mild moderate & severe. It was found that 62.8% had mild, 35.4% had moderate and 13.7% had severe myopia. Conclusion:The commonest refractive error among medical students is myopia of varying grades.

Refractive Errors and its Associated Factors among Undergraduate Medical Students in Kathmandu

“…This result is in accordance with studies in the Scandinavian countries, where the prevalence rate of refractive errors among the medical students was 50.3%, [6][7] and in India, where it varied from 54-73%. [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] However there was a much higher prevalence of 80-90% among medical students in Singapore 4 and Taiwan. 5 Among the students who had refractive errors (51.4%), the leading type was simple myopia seen in 42.9 %, followed by simple astigmatism in 7.1 % and simple hypermetropia in 1.4%.…”

“…12 A similar study in Odisha, India estimated a similar prevalence of refractive error as 56%, with myopia accounting for 54.5% followed by astigmatism 31.3%. 14 A study of refractive errors among medical students in Lucknow, done by Garg et al 16 reported the prevalence of refractive error as 54%, with a higher prevalence of myopia accounting for 77.7%. Studies on medical students in Denmark and Norway yielded a relatively-low prevalence rates of myopia accounting for 50% and 50.3%, respectively.…”

“…This is in accord with similar studies in India where the prevalence of myopia ranged from 51.9 to 77.7%. [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] The distribution of the types of refractive error were found to be statistically significant (p <0.05). This study revealed that simple hypermetropia accounted for only 1.4% of all cases.…”

“…24 This differed from other studies where hypermetropia had a higher prevalence. 15,16 Of the total 108 students with refractive error, 98 students were those whose parents also had the same problem. Among 76 parents who had no refractive error, only 26 students had refractive error.…”

“…6,7 Medical students in India are reported to have a high prevalence of refractive errors ranging from 54% to 74%. [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] In Nepal, a small majority of these studies have been conducted on school children and the general population. A population based study carried out among school children in Mechi, East Nepal showed that 2.9% had some amount of visual morbidity with refractive error accounting for 56% of that morbidity.…”