Prevalence of ametropia among public high school students in Cusco Province, Peru

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Blindness at any age of life is a major health concern, therefore if it occurs in early age of life, lifestyle is significantly affected; there is hampered performance at school, reduced employability and productivity. Uncorrected refractive error is one of main causes of visual impairment in children. Correcting refractive errors in children is one of the priorities of the World Health Organization through Vision 2020. No study has been done in Cusco Peru on prevalence or refractive errors in high school students. OBJECTIVE: To assess the prevalence type and uncorrected refractive error in urban public high school students in Cusco province, Peru. METHODOLOGY: A cross-sectional study was conducted between September to December 2013, with randomized selection of schools designed to assess the prevalence of refractive error in public high school students in Cusco province, Peru. Ocular examination involved measurements of visual acuity using LogMAR chart at 3 meters to all the students present during the survey period from the selected schools. Those with visual acuity less than 6/12 (0.30) in at least one eye non cyclopegic refraction and subjective refraction was done on all identified cases after ocular motility, anterior segment and fundus examination. Data was analyzed using the SPSS version 17 statistical software. RESULTS: The study recruited 1537 school students between 11 to 19 years of age, male (48.9%) and female (51.1%). The prevalence was found to be 18.2%. The common type of refractive error was astigmatism (14.6%), followed myopia (3.4%) and hypermetropia (0.1%). Astigmatism was more common in males (87.1%) than females (76.4%) while Myopia was more in females (22.5%) than males (12.9%). The proportion of uncorrected refractive error was 12.4%. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of refractive error was high enough to justify a regular school eye screening program and the common type of refractive error was astigmatism. Males were at higher risk to be affected by astigmatism and females by myopia. Uncorrected refractive error was significantly high.