Prevalence of visual impairment among school children in three primary schools of Sekela Woreda, Amhara regional state, north-west Ethiopia

Mengistu Zelalem; Yekoye Abebe; Yilikal Adamu; Tewodros Getinet

doi:10.1177/2050312119849769

Prevalence of visual impairment among school children in three primary schools of Sekela Woreda, Amhara regional state, north-west Ethiopia

SAGE Open Med. 2019 May 10:7:2050312119849769. doi: 10.1177/2050312119849769. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Mengistu Zelalem¹, Yekoye Abebe², Yilikal Adamu³, Tewodros Getinet⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biomedical Sciences, School of Medicine, Debre Markos University, Debre Markos, Ethiopia.
² Department of Medical Physiology, School of Medicine, College of Health Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
³ Department of Ophthalmology, School of Medicine, College of Health Sciences, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
⁴ Public Health Department, Saint Paul's Hospital Millennium Medical College, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Abstract

Background: Although there are limited studies, recent data are lacking to determine the prevalence of eye problems in Ethiopia accurately and there is no scientific evidence of such study in Sekela Woreda. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of visual impairment among school children in Sekela Woreda, Ethiopia.

Methods: The study design was a community-based analytical cross-sectional with a multi-stage cluster random sampling technique from September to November 2016.Visual acuity was tested using Snellen's "E" chart while color vision was tested using Ishihara chart. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 20 software, and binary logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with visual impairment.

Results: A total of 875 participants, 466 (53.3%) males and 409 (46.7%) females, with an age range of 8-18 years were screened for visual acuity and color vision deficiency. The prevalence of visual impairment (visual acuity ⩽ 6/12) in "either eye" was 70 (8.0%). Among these, 37 (52.9%) were males and 33 (41.1%) were females. The prevalence of low vision (visual acuity $\leq 6 / 36$ ) and blindness (visual acuity < 3/60) in "either eye" were 28 (3.2%) and 10 (1.1%), respectively. Thirty two (3.7%) had mild visual impairment $(v i s u a l a c u i t y \leq 6 / 12 t o \geq 6 / 18)$ . The prevalence of color vision deficiency was 36 (4.1%). Among these, 27 (3%) were males and 9 (1.1%) were females. The variables age (adjusted odds ratio (95% confidence interval) = 1.14 (1.01-1.28) and color blindness (adjusted odds ratio (95% confidence interval) = 3.93(1.69-9.09) were significantly associated with visual impairment.

Conclusion: The prevalence of blindness and low vision in school children were higher than the national prevalence in Ethiopia. Increasing age and color defective vision were factors associated with the children's visual impairment. The Woreda health office ought to work with responsible stakeholders to tackle the situation in early childhood.

Keywords: Ethiopia; Prevalence; color blindness schoolchildren; visual impairment.