Opthalmic Exercises on Myopia

Abstract

Ophthalmic exercise is massage method that aims at promoting students awareness of eye production, improving blood circulation and relaxing muscles in ocular region, reducing the eye strain of students with myopia. The aim of the study to identify the effect of ophthalmic exercise among students with myopia at selected college Coimbatore. Quasi experimental one group pretest and post test research design was adopted in this study. The samples were selected using Non probability purposive sampling technique. Among 35 samples, 23 samples were Iyear, four samples were IIyear and eight samples were III year. The level of knowledge among students with myopia was assessed using self structured questionnaire before and after ophthalmic exercise. Ophthalmic exercise were demonstrated by using flashcard and slide projector and students continued to practice the exercises for 15 minutes twice a day for one week. The duration of exercise was 20 minutes. The level of eye strain was assessed by using asthenopic symptoms scale before and after intervention. It was identified that the mean level of knowledge among students with myopia during pre test and post test was 13.6 and 16.08 respectively with the standard deviation of pre test and post test was 0.64 and 1.59 respectively. The calculated ‘t’ value 10.75 was greater than the table value 1.96 at 0.05 level of significance. It was identified that the mean level of eye strain among students during pretest and post test was 4.08 and 2 respectively with a standard deviation of pre test and post test was 2.01 and 1.19 respectively. The calculated ‘t’ value 5.94 was greater than the table value 1.96 at 0.001 Level of significance. Hence it was concluded that ophthalmic exercises is an effective intervention in reducing the level of eye strain among students with myopia.