Stereoacuity among Undergraduate Medical and Nursing Students at a Tertiary Care Hospital: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study

Abstract

Introduction: Stereopsis is defined as the ability to perceive object depth. It is measured in seconds of arc. Reduced stereoacuity impinges one's academic as well as a professional performance. Hence in this study, we aim to find out the mean stereoacuity among the undergraduate medical and nursing students using the Titmus fly test. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among undergraduate students at a medical college of Nepal from April 2021 to July 2021. Ethical approval was obtained from the Institutional review committee (Registration number: 487 (6-11) E2 077/078). Simple random sampling method was used. Data were collected from undergraduate medical and nursing students while the post-graduate students were excluded from the study. Overall, 80 students were included in the study. Titmus fly test was used to assess the stereopsis. Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 21 and Microsoft Excel was used for data analysis. Point estimate at 95% confidence interval was calculated along with mean, standard deviation, frequency, and proportion. Results: The mean stereoacuity was 62.63±46.56 (range 40-800) sec of arc (52.77–72.49 at 90% Confidence Interval). A total of 80 participants in our study among which 50 (62.5%) were male and 30 (37.5%)were female. About 41 (51.2%) of the study participants had normal, borderline (>40 and ≤ 120) stereopsis was seen in 35 (43.8%) of the study participants while only 4 (5%) had reduced stereopsis (≥120 sec of arc). Conclusions: This study showed that the mean stereoacuity among the undergraduate medical and nursing students was in subnormal range which was similar to other studies.

Keywords

• binocular vision; depth perception; stereopsis.