Abstract

AN EVALUATION OF THE TYPE OF OCULAR MORBIDITIES IN CHILDREN OF THE SCHOOL GOING AGE GROUP - A PROSPECTIVE STUDY ON THE CHILDREN OF KANPUR CITY

Dr. Alok Ranjan, *Dr. Prashanthkumar Achar, Dr. Perwez Khan and Dr. Mohammed Hafeez

ABSTRACT

Background: The present study aimed to assess the type of pattern of morbidity in the eye that was seen in the school going age group children between the years of 6 years to 12 years. Methods: A prospective cross sectional study was planned to be conducted in the schools of Kanpur city to include children between the age of 6 years and 16 years. The study included the children attending both urban schools and rural schools. in this study we enrolled a total of 2105 school going children of which we had 956 children were those who belong to the rural areas and 1149 of the children who belong to the urban schools. Was initiated after obtaining ethical clearance from the institution and from the district health officer. The children and their Guardians which was represented by the teacher or a parent were explained about the study in detail and those who consented were chosen for the study. All the children who were chosen very evaluated for any type of ocular morbidity. the children underwent a comprehensive ocular evaluation with the help of a torch e examination, slit lampexamination and +90 D and direct ophthalmoscope to examine the anterior & posterior segment pathologies. Results: The ocular morbidity in rural population was 817 (total number of diagnosed cases) in which 43.30% were in rural area in which 63.52% were males and 35.07% were in urban area in which 57.81% were males. The types of ocular morbidity that was edeen ijn the children who belonged to the rural areas was as follows:- refractive error being the most common(15.9%), followed by vitamin A deficiency(12.86%), blepharitis(5.43%) squint(3.66%), amblyopia (2.87%) stye (2.40%) ptosis (1.67%) colour blindness (1.15%) and posterior segment pathologies (0.19%). The prevalence in urban area also showed the most common cause as refractive error with higher prevalence (26.19%) followed by squint (2.78%,) amblyopia (1.91%) vitamin A deficiency (1.91%), blepharitis (1.83%), colour blindness(1.21%), stye (0.70%), ptosis (0.35%) and posterior segment pathologies(0.08%) and it was statistically extremely significant with rural area p=0.0001. Conclusions: Among all the types of morbidity of the eye that affected the children who belonged to the school; going age group the errors of refraction were the most common one irrespective of the area of residence i.e urban or rural, but deficiency of vitamin A and blepharitis were higher in the children who belonged to the rural areas. In rural areas malnutrition seems to be the major cause of ocular morbidity while more use of gadgets and less outdoor activity seems to play vital role in urban areas.

Keywords: Ocular Morbidity, Refractory errors, Squint, Amblyopia, VIT. A deficicancy.