dc.contributor.author | Msiska, Vincent T | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2013-05-24T08:04:36Z | |
dc.date.available | 2013-05-24T08:04:36Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2008 | |
dc.identifier.citation | Master Of Medicine , The University Of Nairobi, 2008 | en |
dc.identifier.uri | http://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke:8080/xmlui/handle/11295/25194 | |
dc.description.abstract | A cross sectional school based study was conducted on significant refractive errors in
primary school children in Lilongwe and Ntcheu districts in Malawi.
The objective of the study was to determine the prevalence and pattern of significant
refractive errors in primary school children aged 12 - 15 years in the two districts.
Method: All children aged 12 - 15 years attending randomly selected public schools and
were present during the survey period were included in the study. The random sampling
was a two stage process; first three education zones were randomly selected in the two
districts. With lower numbers of school children in the rural areas, three full primary
schools were again randomly selected from each of the three zones in Ntcheu and two
schools from each of the three zones in Lilongwe. In the selected schools all pupils aged
12 - 15 years were examined.
A case was defined as a pupil with a significant refractive error if the visual acuity during
the study period was 6112 or worse in the better e e with the use of a Snell ens chart and
was improving with refraction. Objective and subjective refraction was done only in the
cases. Data was analysed using SPSS version 12.0. A p-value of < 0.05 was considered
statistically significant.
Results: A total number of 1448 pupils in Lilongwe and 1276 pupils In Ntcheu
participated in the study. In Lilongwe the prevalence of refractive errors was 2.3%.
Myopia accounted for 1.7%, hypermetropia 0.4% and astigmatism 0.3%.
In Ntcheu, an overall prevalence of 2.4% was noted with hypermetropia accounting for
1.4%, myopia only 0.8% and astigmatism 0.1%.
The prevalence of myopia was significantly higher in Lilongwe as compared to Ntcheu
with a p-value = 0.012. The prevalence of hypermetropia was significantly higher in
Ntcheu with a p-value = 0.001. No significant difference was found with the prevalence
and pattern of astigmatism in the two districts.
Conclusion: A low prevalence of significant refractive errors was found in the two
districts in Malawi. There is no significant difference in the refractive error magnitude in
the two districts. There is a significant difference however in the patterns of refractive
errors in the urban and rural districts, with more myopia in the urban than the rural while
hypermetropia is more in the rural setting. | en |
dc.language.iso | en | en |
dc.publisher | University of Nairobi. | en |
dc.title | Magnitude and pattern of significant refractive errors among primary school children in Ntcheu and Lilongwe Districts in Malawi | en |
dc.type | Thesis | en |
dc.description.department | a
Department of Psychiatry, University of Nairobi, ; bDepartment of Mental Health, School of Medicine,
Moi University, Eldoret, Kenya | |
local.publisher | Faculty of Medicine | en |