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Pattern of refractive errors among the patients presenting to eye department of district hospital of Uttarakhand

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Original Article

Author Details : Manu Bhardwaj, Lokesh Kumar Singh, Alka Gupta, Bhaskar Dutt

Volume : 2, Issue : 3, Year : 2016

Article Page : 248-252

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Abstract

Introduction: Refractive errors are the most common eye disorder encountered in eye OPD of any region worldwide. Global estimates indicate that more than 2.3 billion people in the world suffer from poor vision due to refractive error (RE), this study was conducted to see the pattern of refractive errors in patients of district hospital, which serves most of the population of hilly region of Garhwal, Uttarakand.
Material and Methods: The present hospital based prospective study was conducted in the department of ophthalmology, district hospital Dehradun. All patients from the age of 5 and above attending the eye OPD were taken for the study for the period of 2 months from 25 April’16 to 24 June’16. They were referred for refraction after proper anterior and posterior segment evaluation. Presbyopia was not analysed in our study.
Results: During the study period 1986patients attended the eye OPD. Out of which 259(13.04%) had refractive error. Out of which 98 were male(37.84%) and 161 were female(62.16%), age of the patients varied from 5 to 65 years with a mean age of 31.89 years. Among them 93(35.91%) had myopia, 73 (28.19%) had hypermetropia, 49(18.92%) had ATR astigmatism, 25(9.65%) had with the rule astigmatism, 19(7.33%) had oblique astigmatism.
Discussion: Refractive errors are important cause of visual impairment in developing countries, specially in remote areas, it is very difficult to provide efficient refraction services. Among the refractive errors, myopia was the commonest, constituting 35.91% of all refractive errors. Followed by hypermetropia 28.19%, ATR astigmatism 18.92%, WTR astigmatism 9.64%, oblique astigmatism 7.34%. It was seen that prevalence of myopia is more in younger age group of 15 to 24 years as compared to hypermetropia, which is increasing with age, with peak at 46 to 55 years. It was seen that hypermetropia was also more common among women(p<0.05). According to a study by Prema et al, which was conducted in Tamil Nadu, Hyperopia was commoner among women than men (p = 0.001); was positively associated with diabetes mellitus (p = 0.008) in the rural population. In our study it was seen that ATR astigmatism was found more common than WTR astigmatism(p=0.00262). WTR astigmatism was more in 5-15 years age group. ATR astigmatism was more seen in 26-45 years of age group.
Conclusion: Refractive errors are common eye conditions, which can be easily corrected with appropriate spectacles. Myopia is more common in younger population while hypermetropia is more common in older age groups.

Keywords: ATR(against the rule), Astigmatism Refractive error(RE), WTR(with the rule), Myopia, Hypermetropia

 

How to cite : Bhardwaj M, Singh L K, Gupta A, Dutt B, Pattern of refractive errors among the patients presenting to eye department of district hospital of Uttarakhand. Indian J Clin Exp Ophthalmol 2016;2(3):248-252

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