TY - JOUR
A1 - Prabhu, Avinash
A1 - Ve, Ramesh
A1 - Talukdar, Juthika
A1 - Chandrasekaran, Varalakshmi
T1 - Prevalence of visual impairment in school-going children among the rural and urban setups in the Udupi district of Karnataka, India: A cross-sectional study
Y1 - 2018/9/1
JF - International Journal of Health & Allied Sciences
JO - Int J Health Allied Sci
SP - 145
EP - 149
VL - 7
IS - 3
UR - https://www.ijhas.in/article.asp?issn=2278-344X;year=2018;volume=7;issue=3;spage=145;epage=149;aulast=Prabhu
DO - 10.4103/ojo.OJO_190_2018
N2 -
AIM: The aim of this study is to estimate the prevalence of visual impairment among school-going children in Udupi district, Karnataka.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study across eleven schools from both urban and rural parts of Udupi taluk was conducted to report the magnitude of visual impairment among the schoolchildren. Complex survey design was used in allocating the sample size through stratification and clustering. Totally 1784 schoolchildren between the age groups of 5 and 15 years participated in the study. Presenting visual acuity and objective refraction was measured using computerized logMAR acuity charts and Plusoptix A09 photorefractor, respectively. Manifest ocular deviation or squint was also recorded.
RESULTS: The mean age of the students was found to be 10.62 ± 2.72 years. The prevalence of visual impairment, i.e., visual acuity worse than or equal to 20/40 in the better eye was found to be 4.32% (95% confidence interval: 3.38%, 5.26%). The prevalence rate was significantly higher among students from urban area (5.6%) compared to those from rural area (3.6%) (P = 0.011).
CONCLUSION: Visual impairment was found to be 4.32% in the school-going population of Udupi district. Effective and user-friendly devices aided the visual deficit screening including refractive error and squint.
ER -