Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Prevalence of amblyopia in primary school pupils in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria

2015; Medknow; Volume: 14; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.4103/2384-5589.170174

2468-8207

EbeleG Abadom, BenedictaA Akpe, ErnestA Omoti,

Visual perception and processing mechanisms

Background: Amblyopia causes impairment of visual acuity, depth perception, and contrast sensitivity and this leads to loss of binocular single vision. Objectives: This study was conducted to determine the prevalence and types of amblyopia among primary school pupils in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study. A two-stage simple random sampling technique was used to select 2,139 primary school pupils who were examined. Data were obtained using researcher-administered questionnaires and ocular examinations included visual acuity (VA) test, crowding phenomenon, cover test, Hirschberg's test, Maddox wing, and Maddox rod test. Cycloplegic refraction and dilated fundoscopy were performed after the administration of 1% tropicamide. Amblyopia was defined as best corrected VA ≤6/9 in one eye or both the eyes without ocular pathology in either eye. Results: Amblyopia was present in five students (0.23%) - two males and three females - out of whom two had unilateral and three had bilateral amblyopia. There were two cases of mixed amblyopia (both had anisometropia and strabismus with amblyopia). Anisometropic, isometropic, and meridional amblyopia were found in one pupil each. Conclusion: The prevalence of amblyopia among primary schoolchildren in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria is lower than that reported in previous studies in African, Caucasian, and Asian populations.