Department of Ophthalmology, College of Health Science, School of Medicine, Addis Ababa University, Post Box: 31531, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
BMC Ophthalmol. 2020 May 4;20(1):176. doi: 10.1186/s12886-020-01457-2.
Refractive error, especially myopia, is the most common eye disorder in the world and a significant cause of correctable visual impairment. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of myopia among secondary school students in Welkite town, South-Western Ethiopia.
A school based cross sectional study was carried out among secondary school students of 13 to 26 years of age. The students were selected using a multi stage-stratified cluster sampling technique from four secondary schools. The students' socioeconomic background, usage of eyeglasses and parental myopia was assessed by a questionnaire before visual acuity assessment. Students with visual acuity of less than or equal to 6/12 in the worse eye, who showed vision improvement with pinhole, underwent non-cycloplegic retinoscopy and subjective refraction. Myopia was defined as a spherical equivalent of less than or equal to - 0.50 diopters. Logistic regression was used to see the association of myopia with age, sex, grade level, ethnicity, parental history of myopia and severity.
A total of 1271 students with a response rate of 89.4% were evaluated. The mean age was 16.56+ 1.51 years. Eighty three students were identified to have myopic refractive error making the prevalence of 6.5% (95% CI: 5.30, 8.02). Of 648 females, 50 (7.7%) had myopia while 33 (5.3%) of 623 males had myopia making females relative risk to be 1.5 times that of males. From the total students diagnosed to have refractive error (n = 92), myopia constituted 83/92 (90.2%) of the students indicating that it is the commonest type of refractive error found amongst secondary school students. Only 36.1% of students with myopia wore eyeglasses when they attended the survey. Myopia was more common among older age group 17-21 years (OR: 1.54 95% CI 0.986-2.415) and higher grade level 11-12 (OR: 1.14 95% CI 0.706-1.847).
The prevalence of myopia is high in our study. Attention to the correction of myopia in secondary schools students of Welkite town using eyeglasses can prevent a major proportion of visual impairment.
屈光不正，尤其是近视，是世界上最常见的眼部疾病，也是可矫正视力损害的主要原因。本研究旨在评估 Welkite 镇中学生的近视患病率。
这是一项在年龄为 13 至 26 岁的中学生中进行的基于学校的横断面研究。采用多阶段分层聚类抽样技术，从四所中学中抽取学生。在视力评估之前，通过问卷调查评估学生的社会经济背景、眼镜使用情况和父母近视情况。视力低于或等于 6/12 的较差眼，经小孔视力改善的学生，进行非睫状肌麻痹视网膜检影和主观验光。近视定义为等效球镜度数小于或等于-0.50 屈光度。使用逻辑回归来观察近视与年龄、性别、年级、种族、父母近视史和严重程度的关联。
共评估了 1271 名学生，应答率为 89.4%。平均年龄为 16.56+1.51 岁。有 83 名学生被诊断为近视性屈光不正，患病率为 6.5%（95%CI：5.30，8.02）。在 648 名女性中，有 50 名（7.7%）患有近视，而在 623 名男性中，有 33 名（5.3%）患有近视，这表明女性的相对风险是男性的 1.5 倍。在被诊断为屈光不正的总学生中（n=92），近视占 83/92（90.2%），这表明它是中学生中最常见的屈光不正类型。只有 36.1%的近视学生在接受调查时戴眼镜。近视在 17-21 岁的年龄组中更为常见（OR：1.54 95%CI 0.986-2.415）和较高年级 11-12 年级（OR：1.14 95%CI 0.706-1.847）。
在我们的研究中，近视的患病率很高。在 Welkite 镇的中学生中，通过眼镜来纠正近视，可以防止很大一部分视力损害。
