Abstract

Purpose: To study the pattern of childhood eye diseases in children aged less than 15 years and assess the awareness of parents about this and the need for early screening.

Design: Cross-sectional study design

Materials and Methodology: A cross sectional study was done at the Regional Institute of Ophthalmology, Thiruvananthapuram on a study population of 125 children aged less than 15 years, attending the outpatient department.

Exclusion criteria included mentally retarded and severely ill children.

A sample size of 125 was considered and all consecutive patients eligible to be enrolled were included with the aid of a semi-structured questionnaire.

Study variables included socio-demographic variables and questions assessing the need of an early screening and regular follow up.

Results: The majority (72%) of sample population were below 10 years of age , least observed among under 1 age group(4.8%).

The mean age of diagnosis was 5.32 years, with a SD of 3.293. Refractive error with amblyopia had highest prevalence (29.6%).

66.7% had undergone no routine eye checkup.69.8% also opinioned the need for no routine eye checkup in the absence of symptoms.40.8% underwent their first eye checkup at 5-10 years while only 17.6% had a under 1 age checkup. Notable highlights include 78.4% and 67.2% parents opinioning no occurrence of cataract and glaucoma in childhood.15.2% also opinioned that childhood eye diseases can never lead to blindness.

Conclusion: The study highlights the need for a routine eye checkup and follow up for early onset detection and correction of childhood eye diseases to prevent a future challenge of amblyopia.

Keywords: Amblyopia, Refractive error, myopia, hypermetropia, Astigmatism, childhood blindness, strabismus, school screening.