REFRACTIVE ERROR DISTRIBUTION IN PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN

ABSTRACT

Early-onset blindness generally causes the affected person's family and society great socioeconomic hardship. This issue is made worse by the fact that early-onset blindness frequently leaves a person blind for a very long time (perhaps until death). Despite the widespread acceptance of the need to correct refractive anomalies in children, a sizable proportion of children have been seen to lose their right to sight relatively early due to uncorrected or badly treated refractive error. The study is aimed to determine the refractive error distribution of School Children in Primary schools in Ugbowo Metropolis. Method: It is a Cross-sectional study. This study made use of convenient sampling method to recruit 171 pupils aged 5-12 years in schools in Ugbowo Metropolis as study participants to determine refractive error distribution by age and gender. The screening included visual acuity, external examination with penlight, ophthalmoscopy and static retinoscopy. Results: The distribution of Refractive error of 65.50% was recorded. Hyperopia had the highest prevalence in females (19.30%) and male (17.54%). Furthermore, a low proportion of male students (6.43%) are Astigmatic with the proportion of female being (8.77%). A low proportion of male and female students where myopic with the percentage of (6.85%) and (7.60%) respectfully. Conclusion: The study came to the conclusion that refractive error significantly affects this population and advised parents to make sure their children are screened for it. It also suggested that the government implement school health programs to stop the growing threat of visual impairment brought on by uncorrected refractive error.