Research
Prevalence and Risk Factors for Myopia Among School Children in Aba, Nigeria
The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence of myopia among school children in in Aba, Nigeria.
This was a cross-sectional study conducted with 1197 participants aged 8 to 15 years, selected through multi-stage random sampling technique from 12 schools in Aba.
The prevalence of myopia among studied children was approximately 2.7%.
Out of the 96 children with refractive error, 78.1% had uncorrected refractive errors.
The risk of myopia development was associated with older age groups and higher level of education.
The overall prevalence of myopia and refractive error in school children in Aba were low.
The study demonstrated that the high prevalence of uncorrected refractive error is a major public health problem therefore effective and sustainable children’s vision screening programme is needed to prevent visual impairment and blindness.