Prevalence of Refractive Errors among Medical Students and Identification of Associated Factors

Abstract

Objective: To determine the prevalence of refractive errors among medical students and identify associatedfactors.Study Design: Analytical, cross-sectional study.Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted in the Department of Community Medicine at AkhtarSaeed Medical and Dental College, Lahore from September 2020 to December 2020.Materials and Methods: The study included 300 medical students using convenience sampling technique. Aself- structured pre- tested questionnaire was used. All medical students including MBBS, BDS, Pharm –D andallied health sciences were included in the study. Those students who did not give consent were excluded fromthe study. Data analysis was done with SPSS version 23. Chi square test of significance was applied to findassociation between the variables and p-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results: Refractive error was observed in 203 students (67.7%). The commonest refractive error was myopia(37%) followed by hypermetropia (23.7%) and astigmatism (7%). The prevalence of refractive errors wassignificantly associated with positive family history (p value=<.001), family income per month (p value=0.01)and mobile use per day (p value=0.001). Higher percentage of refractive error (70.6%) was reported byparticipants who were comfortable with light in which they study (p value=0.03).Conclusion: The prevalence of refractive error was 67.7% among medical students, and myopia was the mostprevalent refractive error. Refractive errors were significantly associated with positive family history, familyincome and mobile use per day.