Prevalence and risk factors for myopia among school children in Aba, Nigeria | Zendy

Uchenna C. Atowa | Zendy; Alvin J. Munsamy | Zendy; Samuel Otabor Wajuihian | Zendy

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Prevalence and risk factors for myopia among school children in Aba, Nigeria

Author(s) -

Uchenna C. Atowa,

Alvin J. Munsamy,

Samuel Otabor Wajuihian

Publication year - 2017

Publication title -

african vision and eye health

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

SCImago Journal Rank - 0.186

H-Index - 5

eISSN - 2413-3183

pISSN - 2410-1516

DOI - 10.4102/aveh.v76i1.369

Subject(s) - refractive error , medicine , odds ratio , confidence interval , demography , logistic regression , optometry , public health , blindness , pediatrics , ophthalmology , visual acuity , nursing , pathology , sociology

Aim: To study the prevalence of myopia among school children in Aba, Nigeria.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in public and private (primary and secondary) schools. A multi-stage random sampling technique was used for selecting participants aged between 8 and 15 years from 12 schools in Aba, Nigeria. Data were analysed for 1197 children who underwent a comprehensive eye examination. The children were divided according to the following criteria: age groups (group 1 [8–11 years] or group 2 [12–15 years]), gender (male or female), level of education (primary or secondary) and type of school (public or private). Myopia was defined as spherical equivalent refraction (SER) ≤ -0.50 D in the poorer eye.

Results: The prevalence of myopia was estimated to be 2.7%. Of the 96 children with refractive error, 78.1% were uncorrected. In using logistic regression analysis, risk of developing myopia was associated with older age groups (odds ratio [OR]: 1.20; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.16–9.11; p < 0.010) and higher level of education (OR: 1.73; 95% CI, 1.05–2.86; p < 0.030). There was no significant difference in myopia prevalence between male and female children (p = 0.89).

Conclusion: Although the prevalence of myopia and overall prevalence of refractive error in school children in Aba were low, the high prevalence of uncorrected refractive error is a significant public health problem. An effective and sustainable children’s vision screening programme is needed to prevent visual impairment and blindness.

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