Refractive status of primary school children in Mopani district, Limpopo Province, South Africa

Abstract

This article reports part of the findings of a study carried out to determine the causes, prevalence, and distribution of ocular dis-orders among rural primary school children in Mopani district of Limpopo Province, South Africa. Three hundred and eighty eight children aged 8 to 15 years were randomly selected from five randomly selected schools. Non-cycloplegic retinoscopy and auto-refrac-tion were performed on each child. The preva-lence of hyperopia, myopia, and astigmatism was 73.1%, 2.5% and 31.3% respective-ly. Hyperopia (Nearest spherical equivalent power (FNSE) ranged from +0.75 to +3.50 D for the right and left eyes with means of +1.05 ± 0.35 D and +1.08 ± 0.34 D respectively. Myopia (FNSE) ranged from –0.50 to –1.75 D for the right eye and –0.50 to –2.25 D for the left eye with means of –0.75 ± 0.55 D and –0.93 ± 0.55 D respectively. Regression model for myopia, shows that age had an odds ratio of 1.94 (1.15 to 3.26), indicating a signifi-cant increased risk of myopia with increasing age. Correcting cylinders for the right eyes ranged from –0.25 to –4.50 D (mean = −0.67 ± 0.47 D) and for the left eyes from –0.25 to –2.50 D (mean = −0.60 ± 0.30 D). With-the-rule (WTR) astigmatism (66.5%) was more common, followed by against-the-rule (ATR) astigmatism (28.1%) and oblique (OBL) astig-matism (5.4%). With-the-rule astigmatism was more common in females than males; ATR astigmatism and OBL astigmatism were common in males. Regular vision screening programmes, appropriate referral and vision correction in primary schools in Mopani district are recommended in order to elimi-nate refractive errors among the children.

Keywords

• Refractive error, hyperopia, myo-pia, astigmatism