Ocular morbidity in schoolchildren in Kathmandu

Any information on eye diseases in schoolchildren in Nepal is rare and sketchy. A programme to provide basic eye screening to schoolchildren with an aim to provide services as well as gather information on ocular morbidity has been started.

All the children in the schools visited are included in the study. This programme is targeted at poor government schools, which are unable to afford this service. A complete eye examination is given to all the children including slit lamp examination, fundus evaluation and retinoscopy, and subjective refraction.

A total of 1100 children from three schools are included in this report. 11% of our schoolchildren have ocular morbidity, 97% (117 out of 121) of which is preventable or treatable. Refractive error is the commonest type of ocular morbidity (8.1%). Myopia is the commonest type of refractive error (4.3%) as opposed to hypermetropia (1.3%). 12.4% of children with refractive error have already developed amblyopia. Strabismus is the second commonest type of ocular disability (1.6%). Alternate divergent squint is the commonest type of strabismus (1.4%). Traumatic eye injuries (0.54%), xerophthalmia (0.36%), and congenital abnormalities (0.36%) are much less common.

A school eye screening cum intervention programme with periodic evaluation seems to be appropriate for countries like Nepal as most of the eye diseases found are preventable or treatable.