Childhood blindness and associated factors: An observational study at the district disability rehabilitation centre, West Tripura district, India

BACKGROUND: In India, about 50% of all childhood blindness is either preventable or treatable. Hence, controlling childhood blindness may be an effective way to reduce blindness in this country in the long run. Strategies to combat childhood blindness require accurate data regarding its magnitude, distribution, and determinants in a population. In this regard, district disability rehabilitation centres (DDRC) are working in India to diagnose and rehabilitate the subjects with blindness of various degrees. OBJECTIVES: The objectives of the study are to estimate the proportion of childhood blindness among the visually challenged subjects registered under the DDRC of West Tripura district, to find out the different ocular morbidities in this population and to study the factors associated with these disabilities. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted using secondary data from 2,260 visually challenged subjects enlisted in the DDRC of West Tripura district of India from June 1, 2018, to May 31, 2020. RESULTS: The proportion of childhood blindness was found to be 3.89% (88) among the visually challenged subjects catered by the DDRC of West Tripura district. About 68.18% of the study subjects belonged to the lower socio-economic class as per BG Prasad's socio-economic classification, 39.77% subjects had 30% blindness and 15.90% subjects had 100% blindness. Among these 88 cases (134 eyes) of blindness, 20.14% were refractive error, 7.50% corneal opacities, 12.68% phthisis bulbi, 3.73% congenital cataract and pseudophakia, 2.98% congenital glaucoma, 23.88% congenital globe anomalies, 8.20% retinal diseases, 11.94% nystagmus and 8.95% were due to miscellaneous causes. CONCLUSION: Childhood blindness is still a public health problem in this part of India. Congenital globe anomalies were found to be the commonest cause followed by refractive errors.