Research

• The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of refractive errors and to investigate their psychosocial effect on youth.

• This study was based on the descriptive questionnaire administered on unmarried youth in the age group of 18-25 years over a period of two months.

• Out of the 458 participants, 221 (48.2%) had difficulty in seeing objects.

• Out of the 59 participants who used contact lenses for the correction of the refractive errors, females 71% (42) were more than the males 29% (16).

• 3% participants felt that using spectacles for a long time would harm the eyes or lead to early blindness.

• 5% participants felt that yoga, diet and traditional medicines could reduce the power of the eye.

• 1% participants felt that the continuous use of glasses would increase the power of the glasses.

• 51% participants felt that spectacles were a cosmetic blemish. Of these, 46 % were males and 54% were females.

• 6% participants felt ashamed or embarrassed in using spectacles while 26.8% felt that spectacles were a sign of intelligence.

• Counselling, mass media, support groups and the provision of information about refractive errors in schools and college textbooks will help in dispelling the misconceptions and the distorted facts about vision correction.

This article was identified as a reference for a VII-commissioned systematic review on the Impact of URE on Children.