Evaluation of the incidence and risk factors of ocular disorder in primary school children: a cross-section analysis

Abstract

Background: School health is an essential part of any public health program. Poor vision in childhood can affect school performance and affect children later in life. Pupils can be affected by various eye diseases such as refractive errors, strabismus, color blindness, eyelid problems and cataracts. The aim of this study is to determine the incidence and risk factors of eye diseases in children aged 6-12 years. Methods: This school-based cross-sectional study selected children aged 6-12 years from December 2018 to March 2019 from 09 primary schools in the Kanpur district. The institutional ethical clearance and appropriate permissions from the school authorities were obtained through the medical officer of Kalyanpur PHC and consent 51 from parents. Results: A total of 2,100 students from 09 different schools, 1,070 boys and 1,030 girls, were tested. The most common eye diseases are myopic astigmatism with 16.6% (348 people), myopic astigmatism with 78.2% (272 people), 192 were against the rule astigmatisms, 80 were with the rule astigmatism astigmatisms, followed by simple myopic with 15.2% (53 people) and hypermetropic astigmatism with 1.7% (6 people). The next most common disease is allergic disease with 1.6% (34). The 1.4% (30) of children have strabismus. Blindness 0.26% (5), colour blindness 0.2% (4); eyelid and adnexal disease 0.13% (3) and cataract 0.03% (1) Conclusions: Eye diseases in school-aged children can be easily detected by regular eye examinations; this research shows that vision deficiency is likely to be affected.