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Types of refractive errors in northern Pakistan: a hospital-based survey
Affiliations- Section of Ophthalmology, Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, Dublin, Ireland
- Department of Community Health Sciences, Aga Khan University Karachi, Pakistan
- Ophthalmology Department, Aga Khan University Karachi, Pakistan
- DHQ Hospital, Booni Chitral, Pakistan
- Ophthalmology Department, Ayub Teaching Hospital, Abbottabad, Pakistan
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Abstract
Background: The World Health Organisation (WHO) reports that about 314 million people are visually impaired worldwide, and in 153 million of them the impairment is due to uncorrected refractive errors. Hence, uncorrected refractive error is one of the leading causes of blindness around the globe. The aim of this study is to assess the prevalence and patterns of different types of refractive errors among the people attending the eye clinic in Northern Pakistan.
Material and methods: A hospital-based retrospective audit was done on patients who presented to the Ophthalmology Outpatients Department of Ayub Medical Complex Abbottabad between 1st June 2017 and 31st July 2017. The data of 662 patients were analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics v. 22.0. Results: Refractive errors were found in 487 (73.5%) of the total participants. The crude prevalence of myopia, hyperopia, and astigmatism was found to be 33.5%, 21.9%, and 18.1%, respectively. The refractive error status was found to be independent of gender (p = 0.075), but it varied among different age groups (p = 0.000).
Conclusion: Myopia seems to be the most common refractive error in northern Pakistan, followed by hyperopia. The results of our study can be useful for the planning of eye care services in our country so that we can achieve the goal of VISION 2020 with proper care and planning.
Abstract
Background: The World Health Organisation (WHO) reports that about 314 million people are visually impaired worldwide, and in 153 million of them the impairment is due to uncorrected refractive errors. Hence, uncorrected refractive error is one of the leading causes of blindness around the globe. The aim of this study is to assess the prevalence and patterns of different types of refractive errors among the people attending the eye clinic in Northern Pakistan.
Material and methods: A hospital-based retrospective audit was done on patients who presented to the Ophthalmology Outpatients Department of Ayub Medical Complex Abbottabad between 1st June 2017 and 31st July 2017. The data of 662 patients were analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics v. 22.0. Results: Refractive errors were found in 487 (73.5%) of the total participants. The crude prevalence of myopia, hyperopia, and astigmatism was found to be 33.5%, 21.9%, and 18.1%, respectively. The refractive error status was found to be independent of gender (p = 0.075), but it varied among different age groups (p = 0.000).
Conclusion: Myopia seems to be the most common refractive error in northern Pakistan, followed by hyperopia. The results of our study can be useful for the planning of eye care services in our country so that we can achieve the goal of VISION 2020 with proper care and planning.
Keywords
refractive error; myopia; hyperopia; astigmatism
About this articleTitle
Types of refractive errors in northern Pakistan: a hospital-based survey
Journal
Issue
Vol 4 (2019): Continuous Publishing
Article type
Original paper
Pages
86-91
Published online
2019-11-13
Page views
1211
Article views/downloads
693
DOI
Bibliographic record
Ophthalmol J 2019;4:86-91.
Keywords
refractive error
myopia
hyperopia
astigmatism
Authors
Zubaida Sirang
Kashmira Nanji
Irfan K. Jeeva
Zohra W. Khan
Hasan S. Kazmi
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