PREVALENCE OF MYOPIA AMONG PUBLIC SECTOR SECONDARY SCHOOL CHILDREN IN ISLAMABAD PAKISTAN; A PREVALENT STUDY

Background: Refractive errors are considered as major public health issue as these are most common type of eye disorders. Uncorrected refractive errors are the main cause of avoidable visual impairment which can lead to educational and social disability in adulthood. Objective: To find out the prevalence of refractive errors among secondary school children in Islamabad Pakistan. Methodology: This was a cross sectional study with sample size of 1430 secondary school students. The age of participants was 11-16 years. Data was collected through multistage sampling technique. Vision screening was carried out by Snellen chart and for students with visual acuity ≤ 6/12 refractive status was measured by auto-refractor. Subjective refraction was done according to auto-refractor’s results. Myopia, Hypermetropia and astigmatism were defined as Spherical Equivalent (S.E) of ≥ -0.5 diopter (D), ≥ +1.0 diopter (D) and ≥ 0.75 D respectively. Students detected with refractive errors were evaluated for different variables. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 23 software program, frequencies and percentages were calculated. Results: After screening of 1430 students 240 were detected with refractive errors. Overall prevalence of refractive errors was calculated as 16.78%. Out of 240 students with refractive errors myopia was found in 135 (56.3%) student and hyperopia was detected in 46 (19.2%) students. Myopic and hypermetropic astigmatism was prevalent in 43 (17.9%) and 16 (6.7%) students respectively. Conclusion: It was concluded that a considerable proportion of secondary school students were affected by refractive errors. Prevalence of myopia is very high and needs to be addressed. Keywords: Visual impairment, Refractive error, Myopia, Hypermetropia, Astigmatism