The patterns of refractive errors among the school children of rural and urban settings in Nepal.

INTRODUCTION The uncorrected refractive error is an important cause of childhood blindness and visual impairment. OBJECTIVE To study the patterns of refractive errors among the urban and rural school going children of Nepal. SUBJECTS AND METHODS A total of 440 school children of urban and rural schools within the age range of 7-15 years were selected for this study using multi-stage randomization technique. RESULTS The overall prevalance of refractive error in school children was 19.8 %. The commonest refractive error among the students was myopia (59.8 %), followed by hypermetropia (31.0 %). The children of age group 12-15 years had the higher prevalence of myopia as compared to the younger counterparts (42.5 % vs 17.2 %). The prevalence of myopia was 15.5 % among the urban students as compared to 8.2 % among the rural ones (RR = 1.89, 95 % CI = 1.1-3.24). The hypermetropia was more common in urban students than in rural ones (6.4 %) vs 5.9 %, RR = 1.08 (95 % CI: 0.52-2.24). CONCLUSION The prevalence of refractive error in the school children of Nepal is 19.8 %. The students from urban settings are more likely to have refractive error than their rural counterparts.