Compliance of Spectacle Wear Among School Going Children in District Rawalpindi, Pakistan

Abstract

Compliance of spectacles is associated with improvement in visual function.To study compliance of spectacles and determine the reasons of non compliance among school going children in District Rawalpindi.This was a cross-sectional study of 441 students who had been prescribed spectacles for constant wear during school screening program done by Al-Shifa trust. After 6-8 months a follow up visit was conducted for assessing the compliance of spectacles. Information on age, gender, school system, type of refractive error etc was collected and analyzed to associate with compliance of spectacles.The non compliance rate in school going children of Rawalpindi District was 59%.A significant higher proportion of boys (20.7%) were wearing spectacles than girls (20.5%) (P<0.05). Compliance of spectacles were positively associated with age (P=0.000), type of refractive error (P=0.008), father education (P=0.000), mothers occupation (P=0.000) and fathers occupation (P=0.000)(C.I=95%). The reasons of non compliance include broken (16%), forgot at home (13%), lost (9%), peer pressure (19%), don’t like spectacles (28%) and poor financial conditions (15%). The compliance rate was found to be 41%. The school screening services should include follow up visits to ensure compliance of spectacles. Counseling of parents, teachers, students and providing spectacles free of cost will be an effective step towards improvement of compliance.