Visual acuity and causes of visual failure in primary and preparatory school children in Assiut

ABSTRACT

The aim of this work is to study the visual acuity and different causes of visual impairment among school children in Assiut. A sample of 2485 children from primary and preparatory schools in rural and urban Assiut were examined. All children were tested for visual acuity. Those with visual acuity below 6/9 were further examined for alignment of eyes, ocular motility and anterior segment pathology. For selected cases, fundus examination and refraction was done. 48.65% of the examined children had visual acuity of 6/6 in the better eye and 1.37% had a visual acuity of 6/60 in the better eye. The percentage of children with visual acuity of 6/6 was highest [53.22%] at the age of 6-7 years, and lowest [44.07%] at the age of 14-15 years [P < 0.01]. The percentage of visual acuity of 6/6 in both eyes amounted to 47.73% of the number of examined children in urban and to 26.48% in rural areas [P < 0.001]. The percentage of visual acuity less than 6/60 represented 0.54% of the number of examined eyes in urban area compared to 2.14% in rural area [P < 0.001]. Refractive errors and strabismus were the main causes of diminution of vision in school children examined. Findings showed a general decrease in hypermetropia and shift to myopia with age. Other causes of diminution of vision among studied children included amblyopia [1.65%], corneal scarring [1.41%] and traumatic cataract [0.24%]