Prevalence and determinants of visual impairment amongst school-aged children in Southern Nigeria
African Vision and Eye Health
Field | Value | |
Title | Prevalence and determinants of visual impairment amongst school-aged children in Southern Nigeria | |
Creator | Ekpenyong, Bernadine N. Naidoo, Kovin Ndep, Antor Akpan, Margaret Ekanem, Ekanem | |
Description | Background: Visual impairment among school children is relatively common and research provides evidence for integration of comprehensive eye care into school health programmes.Aim: To determine the prevalence and determinants of visual impairment in school-aged children in Southern Nigeria.Setting: School aged children from 10 public and private-owned schools in Cross River State, Southern Nigeria.Methods: This cross-sectional analytic study used a multistage random sampling technique to select 2418 school children aged 6–17 years. Comprehensive eye examinations were performed on the study. The logistic regression analysis with 95% confidence interval (CI) was used to test hypotheses.Results: Of the 2418 school children selected, 2110 (87%) were assessed. The prevalence ‘of uncorrected, presenting and best corrected visual acuity of 0.3 (20/40) or worse in the better eye’ was 7.3%, 7.2% and 0.19%, respectively. Errors of refraction were the cause of the impairment in 198 (70.7%; 63.5–76.0) eyes with reduced vision, followed by glaucoma suspects 38 (19.2%; 13.8–24.8), amblyopia (3.0%; 1.1–6.4) and corneal opacity 3 (1.5%; 0.3–4.3). The major and independent predictors of visual impairment were age (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 1.97, 95% 1.45–2.67), high socio-economic status (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 1.68, 95% 1.36–2.09) and female gender (AOR 1.35, 95% 1.00–1.88).Conclusion: The common causes of visual impairment in school-aged children are avoidable, and are mostly because of uncorrected refractive error, which could reflect inadequate refractive error services in the area. | |
Publisher | AOSIS | |
Date | 2020-04-23 | |
Identifier | 10.4102/aveh.v79i1.534 | |
Source | African Vision and Eye Health; Vol 79, No 1 (2020); 6 pages 2410-1516 2413-3183 | |
Language | eng | |
Relation |
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:
https://avehjournal.org/index.php/aveh/article/view/534/1215
https://avehjournal.org/index.php/aveh/article/view/534/1214
https://avehjournal.org/index.php/aveh/article/view/534/1216
https://avehjournal.org/index.php/aveh/article/view/534/1213
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