Volume 25, Issue 114, August 2021

Prevalence of eye refractive errors, strabismus, and amblyopia among children referred to eye clinic in secondary hospital, Majmaah city, Saudi Arabia

Rashed Almutairi¹, Khalid M Alabdulwahhab², Mohammad S Ahmad^3♦, Riyaz A Shaik³, Saleh Ali Alribi¹

¹Department of Ophthalmology and Optometry, King Khalid Majmaah Hospital, Al Majmaah, Saudi Arabia
²Department of Ophthalmology, College of Medicine, Majmaah University, Al Majmaah, Saudi Arabia
³Department of Community Medicine/ Public Health, College of Medicine, Majmaah University; Al Majmaah, Saudi Arabia

^♦Corresponding author
Department of Community Medicine/ Public Health, College of Medicine, Majmaah University; Al Majmaah, Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Refractive errors are a preventable cause of blindness in children, resulting in visual disabilities. This study was carried out with an objective to determine the prevalence of common eye refractive errors among children aged between (3 to 15) years and evaluate the number of common eye diseases, strabismus, and amblyopia related to refractive errors as well as preventable and treatable causes of visual impairment. Materials and methods: At King Khalid General Hospital Majmaah, a cross-sectional retrospective clinic-based study was conducted among 1477 children aged 3 to 15 years in the tertiary hospital in Saudi Arabia. A full eye examination was performed on 1477 children with both right and left eyes wit a total of 2954 eyes. The mean and standard deviation, as well as the median, are descriptive statistics. The Shapiro-Wilk test was used to determine whether continuous variables were normal. Result: This cross-sectional retrospective study included 1477 individuals with 686 (46.4%) males and 791 (53.6%) females. Most children were aged between 11-15 years 833 (56.4%), followed by 7-10 years with 407 (27.6%) individuals. A family history of eye disease was noted in 943 (63.8%) of the children. Out of 1477 children enrolled in the study, Astigmatism was the most common refractive error (47 %), followed by hypermetropia (33%) and Myopia (20 %). While; strabismus in 516 children and amblyopia 427 of total refractive error cases. Conclusion: Early diagnosis and treatment of refractive defects, strabismus, and amblyopia reduce strabismus and amblyopia in children and improve their quality of life and education.

Keywords: refractive error, amblyopia, strabismus, hypermetropia, myopia, astigmatism, Majmaah city, Saudi Arabia.

Medical Science, 2021, 25(114), 2048-2055

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