Abstract
Genetic, cultural, and environmental factors play key roles in the prevalence and distribution of refractive errors. More youths in Nigeria today use medicated glasses to enhance vision than we had in the past decades. This study is aimed at revealing the prevalence of refractive errors among students of Madonna University Nigeria, Elele campus, Rivers state. One thousand questionnaires were randomly distributed to the 3rd year undergraduate students in various departments in the College of Medicine, including anatomy, physiology, medical laboratory science, optometry, public health, and pharmacy. Eight hundred and fifty-two (85.2%) out of the 1000 of the questionnaires shared were retrieved and analyzed using simple percentages. Data collected included information on age, sex, state of origin, place of residence, and presence of refractive errors. Our results reveal that the incidence of refractive errors was highest in the North-west region of the country having (93.55%). This was followed by South-west (50.51%), South-south (32.88%), South-east (27.67%), North-central (18.03%), and North-east (15.79%). The highest occurring refractive error among the six geopolitical regions of Nigeria is myopia (54%), followed by hyperopia (21.01%), astigmatism (15.30%), and presbyopia (9.46%). This work represents the first attempt at having a comprehensive outlook at the statistics of refractive errors among Nigerian youths from across the country.
Highlights
The rate at which younger people below the age of 50 years use medicated glasses today in our society is alarming
It means from our results that the incidence of refractive errors among Nigerian youths in tertiary institution stands at 31.60%
This could be associated with the reported high level of poverty and living conditions in this region of the country. It is in line with the report of Feldkamper and Schaeffel (2003) which shows that environmental factors are associated with the frequency of refractive errors
Summary
The rate at which younger people below the age of 50 years use medicated glasses today in our society is alarming. When a good population of teens and youths wear medicated glasses, it is a pointer to the possibility of rising incidence of refractive errors in the population. This study provides data on the incidence of refractive errors among Nigerian youths. Reports show that 2.3 billion people worldwide have refractive errors, out of which about 500 million people mostly in developing countries have no access to proper checkup and correction. This has resulted mostly in either blindness or impaired vision [4]. Studies indicate that refractive errors are mainly caused by genetic factors, while others suggest interplay between genetics and environmental factors [6]. Apart from a positive history of wearing glasses in the family, environmental factors may include close work or near activity such as prolonged study hours and watching computers/television [8,10]
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