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Prevalence of visual impairment among school children in three primary schools of Sekela Woreda, Amhara regional state, north-west Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: Although there are limited studies, recent data are lacking to determine the prevalence of eye problems in Ethiopia accurately and there is no scientific evidence of such study in Sekela Woreda. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of visual impairment among school c...

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Autores principales: Zelalem, Mengistu, Abebe, Yekoye, Adamu, Yilikal, Getinet, Tewodros
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: SAGE Publications 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6537079/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31205693
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2050312119849769
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author Zelalem, Mengistu
Abebe, Yekoye
Adamu, Yilikal
Getinet, Tewodros
author_facet Zelalem, Mengistu
Abebe, Yekoye
Adamu, Yilikal
Getinet, Tewodros
author_sort Zelalem, Mengistu
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Although there are limited studies, recent data are lacking to determine the prevalence of eye problems in Ethiopia accurately and there is no scientific evidence of such study in Sekela Woreda. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of visual impairment among school children in Sekela Woreda, Ethiopia. METHODS: The study design was a community-based analytical cross-sectional with a multi-stage cluster random sampling technique from September to November 2016.Visual acuity was tested using Snellen’s “E” chart while color vision was tested using Ishihara chart. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 20 software, and binary logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with visual impairment. RESULTS: A total of 875 participants, 466 (53.3%) males and 409 (46.7%) females, with an age range of 8–18 years were screened for visual acuity and color vision deficiency. The prevalence of visual impairment (visual acuity ⩽ 6/12) in “either eye” was 70 (8.0%). Among these, 37 (52.9%) were males and 33 (41.1%) were females. The prevalence of low vision (visual acuity [Formula: see text]) and blindness (visual acuity < 3/60) in “either eye” were 28 (3.2%) and 10 (1.1%), respectively. Thirty two (3.7%) had mild visual impairment [Formula: see text]. The prevalence of color vision deficiency was 36 (4.1%). Among these, 27 (3%) were males and 9 (1.1%) were females. The variables age (adjusted odds ratio (95% confidence interval) = 1.14 (1.01–1.28) and color blindness (adjusted odds ratio (95% confidence interval) = 3.93(1.69–9.09) were significantly associated with visual impairment. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of blindness and low vision in school children were higher than the national prevalence in Ethiopia. Increasing age and color defective vision were factors associated with the children’s visual impairment. The Woreda health office ought to work with responsible stakeholders to tackle the situation in early childhood.
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spelling pubmed-65370792019-06-14 Prevalence of visual impairment among school children in three primary schools of Sekela Woreda, Amhara regional state, north-west Ethiopia Zelalem, Mengistu Abebe, Yekoye Adamu, Yilikal Getinet, Tewodros SAGE Open Med Original Article BACKGROUND: Although there are limited studies, recent data are lacking to determine the prevalence of eye problems in Ethiopia accurately and there is no scientific evidence of such study in Sekela Woreda. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of visual impairment among school children in Sekela Woreda, Ethiopia. METHODS: The study design was a community-based analytical cross-sectional with a multi-stage cluster random sampling technique from September to November 2016.Visual acuity was tested using Snellen’s “E” chart while color vision was tested using Ishihara chart. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 20 software, and binary logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with visual impairment. RESULTS: A total of 875 participants, 466 (53.3%) males and 409 (46.7%) females, with an age range of 8–18 years were screened for visual acuity and color vision deficiency. The prevalence of visual impairment (visual acuity ⩽ 6/12) in “either eye” was 70 (8.0%). Among these, 37 (52.9%) were males and 33 (41.1%) were females. The prevalence of low vision (visual acuity [Formula: see text]) and blindness (visual acuity < 3/60) in “either eye” were 28 (3.2%) and 10 (1.1%), respectively. Thirty two (3.7%) had mild visual impairment [Formula: see text]. The prevalence of color vision deficiency was 36 (4.1%). Among these, 27 (3%) were males and 9 (1.1%) were females. The variables age (adjusted odds ratio (95% confidence interval) = 1.14 (1.01–1.28) and color blindness (adjusted odds ratio (95% confidence interval) = 3.93(1.69–9.09) were significantly associated with visual impairment. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of blindness and low vision in school children were higher than the national prevalence in Ethiopia. Increasing age and color defective vision were factors associated with the children’s visual impairment. The Woreda health office ought to work with responsible stakeholders to tackle the situation in early childhood. SAGE Publications 2019-05-10 /pmc/articles/PMC6537079/ /pubmed/31205693 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2050312119849769 Text en © The Author(s) 2019 http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
spellingShingle Original Article
Zelalem, Mengistu
Abebe, Yekoye
Adamu, Yilikal
Getinet, Tewodros
Prevalence of visual impairment among school children in three primary schools of Sekela Woreda, Amhara regional state, north-west Ethiopia
title Prevalence of visual impairment among school children in three primary schools of Sekela Woreda, Amhara regional state, north-west Ethiopia
title_full Prevalence of visual impairment among school children in three primary schools of Sekela Woreda, Amhara regional state, north-west Ethiopia
title_fullStr Prevalence of visual impairment among school children in three primary schools of Sekela Woreda, Amhara regional state, north-west Ethiopia
title_full_unstemmed Prevalence of visual impairment among school children in three primary schools of Sekela Woreda, Amhara regional state, north-west Ethiopia
title_short Prevalence of visual impairment among school children in three primary schools of Sekela Woreda, Amhara regional state, north-west Ethiopia
title_sort prevalence of visual impairment among school children in three primary schools of sekela woreda, amhara regional state, north-west ethiopia
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6537079/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31205693
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2050312119849769
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