Prevalence of Uncorrected Refractive Errors Among the Internally Displaced Schoolchildren in Iraq

Purpose: The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of uncorrected refractive errors among the internally displaced schoolchildren in Iraq.

Method: A school-based cross-sectional study in the academic year of 2016-2017. Schoolchildren were selected from 8 primary schools for the internally displaced children in Kurdistan region, Iraq. All children underwent full ophthalmic examination, uncorrected visions were tested and cycloplegic refractions were done for children with visual impairment. Refractive errors in this study were determined by the results of the cycloplegic refraction.

Results: From 592 selected children, 94.7% had participated in our study, and 553 were eligible (age ranged from 6 to 12 years). The prevalence of refractive errors was 34.5%; 32.2% of them were uncorrected. The prevalence rates of myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism were 3.8%, 13.9% and 14.9%, respectively.

Conclusion: This study has found a high prevalence of uncorrected refractive errors among the internally displaced children in Iraq. This result represents an important health issue among those children, requiring major actions to tackle and resolve it.