title: School eye survey in rural population in UP, India.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To find out the prevalence of refractive errors and pattern of ocular morbidity amongst the school children of a rural village.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross sectional study was carried out in children of age group 3 - 12 years in a rural village of Hathras, Uttar Pradesh, India. All the children were examined including visual acuity measurement using Snellen's E chart, retinoscopy and refraction under cycloplegia. Examination of the anterior segment, media, and fundii was also done. Myopia was defined as spherical/cylindrical equivalent refractive error of at least -0.50 D and hypermetropia as +0.50 D or more (Dandona et al 2002).
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the survey 220 eyes of 110 children were examined, majority of them were in 5-10 year age group. The prevalence of uncorrected visual acuity of 6/6 was 85.40%. Refractive error was the cause in 6.81% of eyes with vision impairment, out of which myopia and hypermetropia were present in 26.67% of eyes. Blepharo-conjunctivitis was present in 15.45% of children and Bitot's spots were present in 0.90% of them. Colour blindness was found in one child.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The prevalence of refractive error in rural school is 6.81 %. Blepharitis is the commonest cause of ocular morbidity.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Ophthalmology, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Aligarh, India. yogibear3190@yahoo.co.in
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.forename: R R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Sukul
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Phougat
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jain
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Varshney
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D011159:Population Surveillance; D015995:Prevalence; D012029:Refraction, Ocular; D012030:Refractive Errors / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012424:Rural Population; D012574:Schools; D015354:Vision, Low / Q000453:epidemiology*; D019987:Persons with Visual Disabilities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*