[A survey of the prevalence and causes of eye disorders in primary school children in Antananarivo].

To assess the prevalence and causes of ocular abnormalities in children, we performed a cross-sectional survey with cluster sampling in Madagascar in Antananarivo primary schools in October 1994. Our other aim was to sensitize the sanitary authorities and the students of ophthalmology to the notion of public health ophthalmology in a country where a national blindness prevention program is being established. 1,081 children aged from 8 to 14 years (mean age 10.6 years) were examined. 51, or 4.7%, were diagnosed as having ocular abnormalities. These abnormalities were distributed as follows: 22 cases or 2% of the sample had refractive errors including 0.74% with myopia of less than 6 dioptrics, 0.18% with myopia of more than 6 dioptrics, 0.83% with hypermetropia of less than 6 dioptrics, and 0.28% with hypermetropia of more than 6 dioptrics; 15 cases or 1.4% of the sample had unilateral amblyopia including 0.9% with anisometropia, 0.37% with strabismus, and 0.09% with macular pathology; 8 cases or 0.74% of the sample had strabismus without amblyopia; and 6 cases or 0.57% of the sample had simple medical pathology. The results showed that 29 children were supposed to have an optic correction, including surgical treatment for 12 and medical treatment for 6. The same low frequencies of ocular abnormalities, mainly concerning refractive errors, were found in the literature. However, children suffering from important visual impairment do not attend school, and we cannot generalize the above results for the whole population.