Low vision in children and adolesents: Hospital based study

Abstract

One thousand five hundred clinical recordswere chosen from the Medical Records Department of the eye clinic, Central Hospital, Benin, Edo State between 2000 and 2004 by cluster random sampling method. Data was classified according to the different etiologies of low vision, gender, congenital and acquired causes, anterior and posterior anomalies and according to World Health Organization's classification. Of the 246 found aged below 20yrs, 37 (15.04%) had low vision. The prevalence of low visionwas thus 15.04%.The leading cause of lowvision was cataract (23.32%).Myopia and optic atrophy contributed 16.22% respectively, aphakia/dislocated lens, 13.51%. retinitis pigmentosa 10.81%, macula degeneration 5.41%, glaucoma and nystagmus 2.70% respectively and the unknown cause 8.11%. 64.86% had moderate low vision, 10.81% was in the profound low vision group, 13.51% was in the near total blindness group, while 7.92% had unilateral loss of vision. 15.76% males were involved while females were 43.24%. Acquired anomaly was 1(2.70%) and posterior segment anomalies were 22(59.46%) respectively.Asignificant difference was found between the congenital causes of low vision and the acquired (P>0.05), congenital causes lead to more low vision cases. There was no significant difference in the sexes (P