FREQUENCY OF AMBLYOPIA AMONG SCHOOL GOING CHILDREN

Background: To determine the frequency of amblyopia among school going children. Objective(s): To find out the frequency of amblyopia gender-wise, age-wise in children with respect to the most frequent type of amblyopia. Methodology: It was a descriptive cross-sectional study which comprises of 264 individuals. It was conducted at Elementary school Muridke. A self-designed Performa was used to gather the data which mainly included individual’s biodata, ocular history and visual acuity. Individual’s eyes were examined using Auto refractometer, Retinoscope, Ophthalmoscope, trail box with, occlude, Snellen chart used and all the findings were then recorded on the Performa. When it comes to entering and analyzing the data, we used the IBM Spss version. Results: A total of 264 subjects participated out of which 104(39.3%) were females and 160(60.6%) were males. The mean age of the subjects was 9.45±2. 871.All students are belonging to Muridke. Total of 264 subjects in which 16 (6.1%) individuals have VA 6/12, 5 (1.9%) individuals have 6/18, 234(88.6%) individuals have 6/6 VA, 3 (1.1%) individuals have 6/60 VA and 6 (2.3%) individuals have 6/9 visual acuity in right eye and 14 (5.3%) subjects have VA 6/12, 6 (2.3%) subjects have VA 6/18, 236 (89.4%) subjects have VA  6/6 and 8 (3.0%) subjects have VA 6/9 in left eye. In this study1 (0.4%) subjects have corrected visual acuity in right eye is 6/18, 260(98.5%) individuals have corrected VA 6/6, 2 (0.8%) subjects have corrected VA 6/60 and 1 (0.4%) have corrected VA 6/9 in right eye. And 262 (99.2%) individuals have corrected VA 6/6 and 2 (0.8%) individuals have corrected VA 6/9 in left eye. which 21 (8.0%) individuals have refractive error myopia, 5 (1.9%) have astigmatism, 3(1.1%) have hypermetropia and 235 (89.0%) individuals are Emmetropia. All the study participants were orthophoric with full extra ocular motility and clear ocular media.   Conclusion(s): Our study concludes that 1.5% individuals are amblyopic and have refractive type amblyopia and 98.5% individuals are non-amblyopic.