Perception of college-going girls towards corneal donation in North India: A latent class analysis study.

Purpose: To assess the perception of college-going girls toward corneal donation in Northern India. Methods: An online survey with a pre-structured, pre-validated questionnaire was conducted on 1721 college-going girls in Northern India. The knowledge and attitude scores were regressed, and latent class analysis was carried out. Results: The average of scores for all participants was computed individually for the knowledge questions and the attitude questions, and based on this score, total participants were divided into two groups: Better corneal donation behaviors (BCDB) and poor corneal donation behaviors. The binomial logistic regression model of knowledge domain for predicting BCDB, age of the participant, their awareness about corneal donation, and willingness to discuss eye donation among family members were found significant. Similarly, for the attitude domain, awareness about corneal donation, knowledge about hours within which ideal eye donation needs to be undertaken, and knowledge about eye donation during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic were found to be significant. Latent class analysis identified one subset of participants having poorer knowledge and attitude scores and that they were more from a rural background, were having more than first order as birth order, were belonging to SC/ST classes, had illiterate or secondary education of father and mother, and were living in rented houses. Conclusion: The findings of the study significantly contribute to devising a mechanism to improve knowledge and influencing the attitude about eye donation among the youth, especially young women, who can act as counselors and motivators for the masses as well as their own families, in the generations to come.

Association of screen time, quality of sleep and dry eye in college-going women of Northern India.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the association of daily screen time and quality of sleep with the prevalence of dry eye among college-going women. METHODS: This study was a cross-sectional, comparative questionnaire-based study of 547 college-going women in northern India. A 10-item Mini Sleep Questionnaire was used to check the quality of sleep, and the Standard Patient Evaluation of Eye Dryness (SPEED) scale was used to examine the prevalence of dry eye among college-going women. RESULTS: Multinomial logistic regression showed a significant association between dry eye with daily screen time spent (P < 0.05) and the quality of sleep (P < 0.05) among college-going girls. Using Latent Class Analysis, two latent classes were selected based on the Bayesian Information Criteria. It was found that the majority population falls in class two and was having Severe Sleep-Wake difficulty. It was seen that the participants in class two belonged to the age bracket of 18-21 years, were from stream Humanities, education of father and mother equal to graduation, father working only, belonging to the nuclear family, having one sibling, hailing from the urban locality, spending more than 6 h daily on-screen, a majority of them using mobile phones, not using eye lubricants, and reported an increase in screen time during COVID-19. CONCLUSION: Dry eye and sleep quality are essential global health issues, and coupled with increased screen time, may pose a challenge in the present era. Preventive strategies need to be incorporated in school and college curriculums to promote physical, social, and psychological well-being and quality of life.

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on cataract surgical volume: A North Indian experience.

PURPOSE: To analyze the impact of the pandemic on trends in cataract surgical volume in 2020 in a high-volume tertiary care academic center in North India. METHODS: The monthly cataract surgical volume for a large, high-volume, tertiary care academic center in North India was obtained from January 2018 through December 2020. Based on historical trends, we used time-series forecasting, probability sensitivity analysis, and linear regression models to estimate what the expected monthly cataract volume should have been from March 2020 onward. RESULTS: In 2020, we expected to perform 7500 cases (assuming historical trends) but performed only 2500 cases (33% of the expected volume). The remaining 5000 cases (67% cases) constituted the "fixed" backlog. Assuming the ramp-up in cataract surgical volume starts in January 2021, results of the Monte Carlo simulation revealed that for our system, it would take on average 5 months (May 2021) under the optimistic scenario and 10 months (October 2021) under the ambivalent scenario to reach pre-pandemic expected surgical volume. There would be a collective backlog of 5500 cases under the optimistic scenario (8.8 months' worth of cases) and a collective backlog of 6900 cases under the ambivalent scenario (11 months' worth of cases). CONCLUSION: An intuitive approach and out-of-the-box solutions are required by the government and private institutes' collaborative efforts to help mitigate the disruptions caused by the pandemic and lessen the backlog without causing provider burnout.

Efficacy of part-time occlusion in amblyopia in Indian children.

Purpose: To study the effectiveness of part-time occlusion (PTO) in different types of amblyopia in Indian population. Methods: Prospective case series of consecutive cases of amblyopia from a tertiary care center were subjected to PTO of the better eye and monitored periodically for 6 months. Those who failed to improve by 6 months were shifted to full-time occlusion of the better eye and followed for a further 3 months. Results: 175 eyes of 175 patients with amblyopia underwent PTO for 6 months. The mean age of the patients was 10.47 ± 4.69 years (range: 3-26 years). Major subgroups included 94 eyes with strabismic amblyopia and 70 with anisometropic amblyopia. Overall, 168 (96%) children benefited from PTO (improvement being defined as a gain of at least one line of Snellen's visual acuity). The improvement rates for strabismic amblyopes (97.9%) was significantly more than anisometropia (94.3%); P = 0.027. Of the seven patients not responding to PTO, six did not benefit even after full-time patching. Conclusion: PTO is a viable and effective modality of management of amblyopia in Indian patients. Strabismic amblyopia was the commonest and responded best to the occlusion therapy in our cohort.

Ophthalmic Complications in Pediatric Uveitis.

Purpose: We aim to look at the complications encountered by a cohort of pediatric uveitis patients from north India.Methods: Retrospectively, complications seen in patients younger than 16 years diagnosed with uveitis between January 2006 to March 2015 were noted.Results: Data of 104 children, with a mean follow-up of 3.40 ± 2.34 years was studied. Cataract (n = 42, 24.00%), band-shaped keratopathy (n = 32, 18.29%) and Glaucoma/OHT (n = 11, 6.29%) were most encountered complications at presentation. Glaucoma/OHT (29.71%; n = 52), cataract (18.86%; n = 33) and maculopathy (n=12;6.86%) were the most common complications at follow up. Maculopathy (35%) and Glaucoma/OHT (20%) were the most common causes of visual acuity ≤3/60.Conclusions: Cataract is the most critical complication in children with uveitis at presentation and raised intraocular pressure occurs at follow-up, perhaps attributed to the treatment. Maculopathy is the most common cause of blindness in these children.