1Associate Professor, Department of Ophthalmology, Adesh Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Bathinda-151101, India
2Associate Professor, Department of Biochemistry, Adesh Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Bathinda-151101, India
3Professor, Department of Ophthalmology, Adesh Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Bathinda-151101, India
*Corresponding author email id: riteshsingla2k@hotmail.com
Online published on 15 September, 2015.
Refractive errors (RE) are the one of the most common visual disorders found worldwide in school going children and it isalsoone of the causes of blindness. Itcan easilybeprevented if timelyproper measuresare taken. Since most of the refractive start at school going age, the present study had been undertaken in schools around Bathinda city.
A total of 8256 students between the age group of 5–15 years were screened from schools (four ruralandfour urban) in theregion around Bathindacity. After completepreliminaryexamination children with lowvisual acuity on Snellen's charts were referred to Adesh institute of medical sciences and research, Bathinda, for confirmation of the refractive errors and other ocular abnormalities.
708 students (8.6%), out of 8256 had refractive errors. Myopia was found to be most common (5.6%). The refractive errors found in urban school children (8.6%) was almost equal to rural school children (8.5%), which is statistically not significant (p > 0.05). The refractive error in males was 8.9% as compared to females which was 8.1%.
In the present study, percentage distribution of myopia was found tobehigher (5.6%) than the hypermetropia (2.4%) andastigmatism (0.5%). Interestingly, in the present studythe refractive errors were found to be equal in urban and rural schoolchildren.
Refractive errors, Myopia, Hypermetropia, Uncorrected refractive error, Blindness
