Assessment of refractive error and related ocular morbidities between school children: An analytical observational study

Abstract

Aim: The aim of the present study was to compare the refractive error and related ocular morbidities between school children.Methods: An analytical study design was adopted to screen school children from randomly selected schools in urban and rural areas and duration of the study was 2 years. All children aged 5–15 years that were present in the school on the day of examination were included in the study. Seven urban and eight rural schools were then randomly selected. A total of 1680 students were allocated for the evaluation. Either due to the non-availability of the consent form or the child itself, 1500 (89.9%) were included for the final evaluation.Results: Out of 1500 students, 800 belong to urban school and 700 belong to rural areas. The gender distribution between groups was similar (P = 0.6). The proportion of preparatory and secondary students of rural and urban was significantly different (p