Visual Acuity and Refraction of Libyan School Pupils in Comparison to Preschool Children

الملخص

Error of refraction is a socioeconomic problem of life, its effects vary from living with blurred vision, lost opportunities to
work in certain jobs, to risking becoming blind because of potential loss of the sound eye. This study is aimed to find the
prevalence of refractive error among school age children and compare it to that of preschool children by other statistics.
Visual acuity (VA) and auto refraction and correction of error of refraction by lenses were performed on 1127 students of
first year primary, preparatory and secondary school age in Tripoli schools (April 2008 to April 2009). Approximately one
third of students were found with defective vision due to an error of refraction with a high incidence of mixed myopia,
hyperopia, myopic astigmatism, myopia, then others with a power of refraction varies from zero to 4 D and increasing from
4 to 10 D. With increase incidence of marked difference between both eyes (anisometropia), which increases the chance
to develop lazy eye (amblyopia) in future which differs from preschool and other statistics. The study found that, high
incidence of error of refraction among school age in comparison to other statistics and same as preschool age.
We would like to recommend that, the checking of VA and refraction should be performed for preschool age children and
regularly for school age children to fully resolve this socioeconomic problem among students if detected early and treated.