Amna Hassan, Shamshad Ali, Hammad Hassan, Shahzad Saeed, Ayman Shahzad.
Burden of Refractive Errors in Secondary School Students, Detected Through Visual Screening..
Pak J Med Health Sci Jan ;12(3):1208-10.

Background: Refractive Errors are the conditions in which the parallel rays of light coming from infinity cannot be focused on to the retina by the optical system of the eye at rest. Refractive errors are one of the priority areas for vision 2020 initiative. According to the United Nation’s Human Development Index, Pakistan is recently ranked 136 out of 177 countries being the sixth most populous country in the world . Aim: To find out the burden of the refractive errors in school children. Methods: This was a cross sectional survey done in Public sector Secondary schools in UC-125 of Lahore for a period of 3 months. Results: 288 students with ages of 10 to 16 years were included. Children with Vision less than 6/12 in the better eye or both eyes were tested for the presence or absence of a refractive error by the pinhole test which was further subjected to cycloplegic and non cycloplegic retinoscopy , automated refraction and finally subjective refraction. Conclusion: It shows that in secondary school children the frequency of refractive errors is 20.3%. Out of these, myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism are 42.37%, 30.50% and 27.11% respectively.

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