Association of Low Visual Acuity and Head Injury among the Undergraduate Students of Bingham University, Karu, Nigeria

Abstract

A laboratory-based cross-sectional study was conducted among Bingham University undergraduate students, Karu, to investigate the proportion of visual acuity (VA) among the students. The study aimed at investigating an association between head injury with low VA of students whose parent’s use medicated eye glasses. A total of 262 undergraduate students participated in the study. A predesigned, pre-tested, self-administered questionnaire was filled by the students. Eye examination using the optotype Snellen E Chart followed and the VA of the right (VARE) and left eyes (VALE) were tested separately. A regression and correlation model was used to assess the relationship between head injury and low VA. Head injury at one point of time in their life was strongly associated with low VA for both eyes (VARE, r = 0.524, R2 = 0.274, p = 0.040; VALE, r = 0.0.531, R2 = 0.282 p = 0.010). Parents’ use of medicated eye glasses was also associated with low VA of students (VARE p = 0.009; VALE p < 0.001). Our results showed that students that had any form of head injury at any point in their life either as a child, teenager or an adult, were more likely to have low VA. However, the educational status of parents, anthropometric parameters and ethnicity had no association with low VA. We conclude that any form of head injury, at any point in one’s life, and parent’s use of eye glasses are risk factors for low VA.