Childhood blindness and visual impairment among children attending Ruharo Eye Centre

Abstract

To determine the magnitude, causes of blindness and visual impairment and spectacle use among children attending Ruharo Eye Centre (REC). Methods: This was a hospital based descriptive cross sectional study, conducted at REC. The study population comprised all children below 16 years attending REC during the period of data collection and targeted all children presenting vision below 6/18 in the better eye and who consented/assented to participate in the study. The WHO CB questionnaire was used, a variety of visual acuity tests were used depending on the age, children were examined and treated and those with refractive error were refracted and prescribed glasses. Stata11 software was used for analysis. Results: In 3 months, a total of 1082 children were examined with 54% (586/1082) male. The mean age was 7.32 years (CI 95% 7.04-7.59). Sixty seven children (6.19%) were visually impaired or blind with a sex ratio Female/Male = 1:1. The magnitude of childhood blindness was 2.50% [95% CI=1.58-3.48] (27/1082) and the total magnitude of visual impairment was 3.70% [95% CI = 2.58-4.48] (40/1082). The major site of abnormality leading to childhood blindness and visual impairment was the lens accounting for 26.86% (18/67) of all the cases. Fifty percent of these were post cataract surgery. Refractive error was the leading cause of visual impairment accounting for 43% (13/28) of the cases. Eighty eight percent (59/67) of the causes of childhood blindness and visual impairment were avoidable. Only 8% (2/24) of children with confirmed refractive errors), were effectively seen using the prescribed optical correction. Conclusion: In this study, 2.5% of children seen at REC were blind; lens abnormalities were the major cause of childhood blindness and majority of the children who required glasses and low vision devices were not