title: The impact of spectacle wear compliance on the visual function related quality of life of Omani students: A historical cohort study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Eye screening and refractive services to students are part of a school health initiative in Oman. We evaluated the impact of the compliance of spectacle wear on the vision related quality of life (VFQ) among 12-13 years old and 15-16 years old Omani students with refractive error.
  
  
  METHODS
  This historical cohort study was conducted in 2012. Students using spectacles and those not using spectacles after 1 year of prescribing/providing spectacles were interviewed to assess their VFQ. The VQ 20 questionnaire with 5 graded close-ended responses was adopted for this purpose. The responses for the VFQ related to different visual functions of students who were/were not spectacle wear compliant, were compared.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Our cohort had 124 students in each group. The overall VFQ was significantly higher among the compliant spectacle wearers (compliant group) compared with the non-complaint wearers (non-compliant group) (relative risk [RR] =4.7% [95% of the confidence interval (CI): 2.8-6.6]). The association of gender and the grade level was not significant (P > 0.05). However, the variation of governorate was significantly associated to the difference of VFQ in both groups (χ(2) = 16.6, degrees of freedom = 4, P = 0.0003). The VFQ related to the near work (RR = 1.3) and school related activities (RR = 1.3) was better in the compliant group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  VFQ was better among those students who were spectacle wear compliant compared with those who were not. VFQ related to near work and school related activities seem to be the most influenced by spectacle wear compliance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Non-Communicable Disease Control, Eye Health Care Program, Directorate General of Health Affairs, Ministry of Health, Oman ; Department of Research, King Khaled Eye Specialist Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Rajiv B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Khandekar
authors.affiliation: Department of Non-Communicable Disease Control, Eye Health Care Program, Directorate General of Health Affairs, Ministry of Health, Oman.
authors.forename: Urmi P
authors.initials: UP
authors.lastname: Gogri
authors.affiliation: Department of Non-Communicable Disease Control, Eye Health Care Program, Directorate General of Health Affairs, Ministry of Health, Oman.
authors.forename: Saleh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Al Harby
keywords: Compliance; myopia; school health; spectacles; vision screening; visual function related quality of life