Original Research

Refractive status of primary school children in Mopani district, Limpopo Province, South Africa

R.G. Mabaso, A.O. Oduntan, M.B.L. Mpolokeng
African Vision and Eye Health | South African Optometrist: Vol 65, No 4 | a267 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/aveh.v65i4.267 | © 2006 R.G. Mabaso, A.O. Oduntan, M.B.L. Mpolokeng | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 19 December 2006 | Published: 19 December 2006

About the author(s)

R.G. Mabaso, Department of Public Health, University of Limpopo, Turfloop Campus, P. Bag x1106, Sovenga 0727, South Africa
A.O. Oduntan, Department of Optometry, University of Limpopo, Turfloop Campus, P. Bag X1106, Sovenga, 0727, South Africa
M.B.L. Mpolokeng, Department of Public Health, University of Limpopo, Turfloop Campus, P. Bag x1106, Sovenga 0727, South Africa

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Abstract

This article reports part of the findings of a study carried out to determine the causes, prevalence,  and  distribution  of  ocular  dis-orders  among  rural  primary  school  children in  Mopani  district  of  Limpopo  Province, South Africa. Three hundred and eighty eight children  aged  8  to  15  years  were  randomly selected from five randomly selected schools. Non-cycloplegic retinoscopy and auto-refrac-tion were performed on each child. The preva-lence of hyperopia, myopia, and astigmatism was  73.1%,  2.5%  and  31.3%  respective-ly.  Hyperopia  (Nearest  spherical  equivalent power (FNSE) ranged from +0.75 to +3.50 D for the right and left eyes with means of +1.05 ±  0.35  D  and  +1.08  ±  0.34  D  respectively. Myopia (FNSE) ranged from –0.50 to –1.75 D for the right eye and –0.50 to –2.25 D for the left eye with means of –0.75 ± 0.55 D and –0.93 ± 0.55 D respectively. Regression model for myopia, shows that age had an odds ratio of  1.94  (1.15  to  3.26),  indicating  a  signifi-cant increased risk of myopia with increasing age.  Correcting  cylinders  for  the  right  eyes ranged from –0.25 to –4.50 D (mean = −0.67 ± 0.47 D) and for the left eyes from –0.25 to –2.50 D (mean = −0.60 ± 0.30 D). With-the-rule  (WTR)  astigmatism  (66.5%)  was  more common, followed by against-the-rule (ATR) astigmatism (28.1%) and oblique (OBL) astig-matism  (5.4%).  With-the-rule  astigmatism was  more  common  in  females  than  males; ATR astigmatism and OBL astigmatism were common in males. Regular vision screening programmes,  appropriate  referral  and  vision correction  in  primary  schools  in  Mopani district  are  recommended  in  order  to  elimi-nate  refractive  errors  among  the  children.

Keywords

Refractive error, hyperopia, myo-pia, astigmatism

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