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Community and Public Health Nursing

Volume  4, Issue 3, September-December 2019, Pages 133-138
 

Original Article

A Cross-sectional Study on Prevalence of Refractive Errors Among Primary School Children

R Amutha1, A Felicia Chitra2

1 M.Sc. Nursing (Community Health Nursing), 2 Principal Cum HOD, Department of MSN, Mother Theresa Post Graduate & Research Institute Of Health Sciences, Puducherry, 605006, India.

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21088/cphn.2455.8621.4319.1

Abstract

Background: The eventual moulding of a person’s identity and ability depends on his nature, surroundings and quality of eye sight. The eyes are wonderful sensory organs, which help the people to learn about the world in which they live. The visual system constructs a mental representation of the world surround us. After cataract, the refractive error is the second largest cause of treatable blindness. Aim: To teach eye exercise and refer them to higher institution. Subjects and Methods: Quantitative approach design was used for the study. Cluster sampling technique were used to select school, simple random (lottery method) was used to select the class. Total sample was 420 primary school children in selected schools at Puducherry. Data collection was done with structured questionnaire to assess clinical variables and snellen’s chart to assess visual acuity. It has three section. Section A: Demographic variables, Section B: Clinical variables and Section C: A complete eye examination which included inspection of eye and visual acuity. Snellen’s chart (E chart and alphabet chart) was used to assess the visual acuity of primary children. The Resultrevealed that in the Right eye 56 (13.3%) of children had myopia whereas 364 (86.7%) had normal vision and in Left eye 57 (13.6%) of children had myopia whereas 363 (86.4%) had normal vision. Considering the association between the Visual impairment of Right Eye and Left Eye among primary school children with their selected demographic variables is it was found that the demographic variables on mothers wearing spectacles and siblings wearing spectacles had a highly statistical association at the level of p < 0.001 in the right eye and gender, mothers education had shown significant association in the left eye at the level of p < 0.001. Association between the Visual impairment of Right Eye and left eye with their selected clinical variables pain in eyes had shown significant association at the level of p < 0.05. Conclusion: The Researcher concluded that the parents, and teachers must be educated about the early detection of refractive error, eye exercise and correction with spectacles to prevent progression of visual impairment. Periodical eye screening of school children is needed.

 


Keywords : Refractive errors; Primary school children
Corresponding Author : Felicia Chitra