Prevalence of functional amblyopia among Egyptian population Alexandria during the year 1991

The fact that the amblyope is exposed to the potential risk of blindness from loss of the good eye by disease or injury adds urgency to our effort to learn more about amblyopia in Egypt for better management of this socio-economic problem. The study was carried out to determine the prevalence of this problem in Alexandria governorate. The standard cluster sampling technique was used. It involved screening of 30 clusters [each consisted of 25 house-holds] i.e. 3810 subjects representing population of Alexandria. The overall prevalence was 4.03%. Anisometropic amblyopia was the most common type seen in this study [39.85%] most of them were myope [43.04%], while the strabismic type was the second common type [24.81%] most of them were hypermetrope [48.85%]. This high overall prevalence of amblyopia calls for early detection and management in the pre-school age or first year of school enrollment [4-6 years]