REFRACTIVE ERRORS

Objective: To know the profile of refractive errors in school age children in DHQ Hospital Karak and group of teaching Hospitals Bannu. Setting: DHQ Hospital Karak and group of Teaching hospitals Bannu. Period: Two years study from August 2007 to August 2009. Design: Descriptive study. Materials & Methods: A work up proforma was prepared for record of children. School age children with age range from 5 to 15 years who attended the eye OPD were documented and informed consents were taken from children and their parents. They were screened for refractive errors with retinoscopy. In some children cycloplegic refraction was done.Fundoscopy was also done to exclude any lesion causing visual impairment in some children .Refractive errors was noted as spherical equivalent of myopia and hypermetropia in children who had both spherical and cylindrical error while in those children who had only cylindrical error were assigned as astigmatism .Children with any organic lesion in cornea lens and fundi were excluded from study. Results: Total 2680 school age children with age range from 5 to 15 years were examined out of which 1560(58.20%) were male and 1120(41.8%) were female.1688(62.98%) children were emmetropic while 992(37.01%) had refractive error .Spherical equivalent of myopia was present in 541(54.53%) while that of hypermetropia in 360 (36.29%)children. Astigmatism was present in 91(9.17%) children. Conclusions: Refractive error is a common ocular disorder affecting school age children. Myopia is more common followed by hypermetropia. Therefore routine careful visual check up in school age children should be carried out.