Prevalence and Causes of Ocular Morbidity among Primary School Children in Sokoto Metropolis, North-Western, Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Vision plays an important role in child development, as this is essential for receiving visual sensory information from the external environment and social development.
Objectives: This study aims at determining the prevalence and causes of ocular morbidity among primary school children within sokoto metropolis.
Materials and Method: A descriptive cross sectional survey of primary school children in Sokoto metropolis was carried out between July 2016 and August 2016. Relevant socio-demographic history and ocular examination was carried out on the primary school children that were selected using a multi-stage sampling technique. Data were entered and analysed using the MS Excel 20 and Statistical Package for Social Sciences (IBM SPSS) version 20.
Results: A total of 184 pupils were surveyed; 85 (46.2%) were males and 99 (53.8%) were females. The age range was between 5 and 15 years and the mean age was10.84years ± 2.19. The prevalence of ocular morbidity among the primary school children was 29.3%. Conjunctivitis was found to be the commonest ocular morbidity with a prevalence of 17.9% followed by refractive error with a prevalence of 7.6% while no cases of colour vision or cataract were seen.
Conclusion: The sheer magnitude of ocular morbidity among primary school children calls for need to introduce or improve the school eye health program as part of the routine school heath services.