Pattern of Errors of Refraction among Children Attending Ophthalmic Outpatient Clinic in Suez Canal University Hospital

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Ophthalmology, Port Said Ophthalmology Hospital, Egypt

2 Department of Ophthalmology, Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University, Egypt.

3 Department of Occupational Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University, Egypt

Abstract

Background: The eye health care program used systematic referrals and quick management by qualified ophthalmologists at secondary and tertiary levels as well as early detection of blinding eye illnesses at the primary health level in the last ten years to reduce childhood blindness. Aim: to describe the incidence of errors of refraction of children attending the ophthalmic outpatient clinic at Suez Canal University Hospital to have a better insight into our ophthalmic problems and update our investigation and management to overcome this problem. Patients and Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out on 331 children who attended the ophthalmic outpatient clinic in Suez Canal University Hospital for 3 months in the period from January 2019 to April 2019. Results: The most common refraction error among the studied participants was astigmatism 75.2% followed by hypermetropia with 16% and myopia with 8.8%. Among astigmatism, the most common subtype was myopic astigmatism (36.2%). The study included 178 (53.8%) girls and 153 (46.2%) boys with a Mean age of 7±2 years. A family history of refractive errors was 215(65%) positive. REs in our study were more in females than males and in rural areas than in urban areas. Amblyopia was seen in 51.8%. Conclusion: We discovered that most of the affected children were in the school age range, highlighting the significance of screening schools for REs among school children. We also covered in our study how a family history was typical in children with refractive error.
 

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