Causes and Prevalence of Ocular Morbidity among Primary School Children in Ilorin; Nigeria

ABSTRACT

Objective: To determine the causes and prevalence of ocular morbidity among primary school children in Ilorin; Nigeria. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional survey of primary school children in 10 randomly selected primary schools within Ilorin; Nigeria was carried out between July 2005 and January 2006. Relevant ocular history and basic ocular examinations were carried out on the children that were selected from a multi-stage sampling process. Results: One thousand three hundred and ninety three pupils were surveyed. There were 689 (49.4) boys and 704 (50.6) girls. The age range was between 4 and 15 years. The mean and modal ages were 10.16 SD 2.5 and 10 respectively. Two hundred and seventy seven pupils had ocular pathology giving a prevalence of 19.9. The two most common ocular disorders found among the pupils were refractive errors and vernal conjunctivitis with prevalence of 6.9and 6.7respectively. Others included genetic / congenital / developmental ocular disorders 39 (2.8); glaucoma / glaucoma suspect 20 (1.4); ocular infections 18 (1.3); and ocular trauma 11 (0.8). More than three-quarters (86.7) of the causes of visual impairment and blindness among the pupils were avoidable (preventable or treatable). Conclusion: The sheer magnitude of avoidable causes of visual impairment and blindness in the study underscores the need for effective school eye-health programmes in developing countries