Prevalence of Myopia in children up to 16 years observed in tertiary care eye centre of central India

Abstract

Introduction: Myopia is most common cause of childhood visual disability. In large population it remains undiagnosed. High myopia can be associated with major ophthalmic diseases such as myopic retinopathy and exudative myopic macular degeneration, myopic glaucomatous optic neuropathy and rhegmatogeneous retinal detachment.

Methods: Study was conducted in Regional Institute Of Ophthalmology in central India. Children up to age of 16 years included with special emphasis on observing type and amount of myopia and it’s clinical presentation. After mydriasis eyes were examined by retinoscopy and indirect ophthalmoscopy.

Results: Prevelance of childhood myopia in hospital based study was 16.5 % with male to female ratio 53:47. Most of the children were belonging to urban area(63.61%). Headache was most common complain for hospital visit. Most common age group affected was 7-12 and 13-16 years. In 18.53% of patients family history was present.

Conclusion: Due to high magnitude of uncorrected Myopia it appears to be a public health problem both in urban and rural areas. An uncorrected refractive error leads to learning difficulties and reduced performances in school, ultimately affecting the psycho-social development of the child. For prevention Large-scale visual acuity screening programs must be launched to detect low vision due to myopia early and an annual check up to update the spectacle prescriptions.