Abstract
This study aimed to investigate the prevalence and causes of childhood blindness in a rural area of Bangladesh. We adopted a cross-sectional quantitative study design for this study, which was performed in three unions (sub-districts) located in Raiganj Upazila of the Sirajganj district in Bangladesh. Using a validated tool, a screening program was conducted at the household level. After initial screening, a team of ophthalmologists confirmed the diagnoses by clinical examinations. The prevalence of childhood blindness was observed to be 6.3 per 10,000 children, whereas the rate of uniocular blindness was 4.8 per 10,000 children. Congenital problems were the major causes of both uniocular and binocular blindness (uniocular blindness: 84% and binocular blindness: 92%). The whole globe was the site responsible for binocular blindness (28.0%, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 13.1, 47.7), whereas the cornea was responsible for uniocular blindness (57.8%, 95% CI: 35.3, 78.1). Childhood blindness is a public health problem in Bangladesh and is highly prevalent, regardless of sex. The major causes of childhood blindness are congenital.
Highlights
An estimated 36 million people live with blindness [1]
The prevalence of binocular blindness in our study population was 6.3 per 10,000 children, whereas that of uniocular blindness was 4.8 per 10, 000 children. Both uniocular and binocular blindness were more prevalent among boys than girls; the difference was not statistically significant
A significantly higher rate of binocular blindness was observed among those aged under 5 years; the rates were 19.4 and 0.7 in children aged under 5 years and those aged 5 years and above, respectively
Summary
An estimated 36 million people live with blindness [1]. In terms of the prevalence of blindness by age distribution, around 1.4 million children aged 0–14 years are currently living with blindness, whereas approximately 17.5 million are at a risk of developing low vision [2]. The estimated burden associated with blindness among children is 70 million blind person years [3]. The actual number of blind children is much lower than that of blind adults, the number of blind years resulting from the blindness is alarmingly high in children, and this has an immense social and economic impact [4,5,6]. Analyses of global data showed that around 90% of blind people reside in developing countries [7].
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