| COMMUNITY EYE CARE |
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| Year : 2008 | Volume
: 56
| Issue : 2 | Page : 139-144 |
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Comparison of refractive errors and factors associated with spectacle use in a rural and urban South Indian population
Raju Prema1, Ronnie George1, Ramesh Sathyamangalam Ve1, Arvind Hemamalini1, Mani Baskaran1, Govindaswamy Kumaramanickavel1, McCarty Catherine2, Lingam Vijaya1
1 Glaucoma Project, Vision Research Foundation, Sankara Nethralaya, Chennai, India
2 Marshfield Medical Research Foundation, WI, USA
Correspondence Address:
Ronnie George
Medical Research Foundation, Sankara Nethralaya, 18, College Road, Chennai - 600 006
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/0301-4738.39119
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Purpose: To compare the prevalence of refractive errors and factors associated with spectacle use in a rural and urban south Indian population.
Materials and Methods: Four thousand eight hundred subjects (age >39 years) each from rural and urban Tamil Nadu were enumerated for a population-based study. All participants underwent a complete ophthalmic evaluation including best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), objective and subjective refraction. Out of 3924 rural responders 63.91% and out of 3850 urban responders 81.64% were phakic in the right eye with BCVA of 20/40 or better and were included in the study. Association of spectacle use and refractive errors with different parameters were analysed using logistic regression.
Statistical Analysis: Chi square, t test, Chi square for trend and Pearson's correlation coefficient were used for analysis.
Results: Spectacle use was significantly higher and positively associated with literacy and employment in the urban population. The age and gender-adjusted prevalence of emmetropia, myopia of spherical equivalent (SE) ≤-0.50 diopter sphere (DS), high myopia (SE ≤-5.00DS), hyperopia (SE >0.50DS) and astigmatism ≤ 0.50 diopter cylinder (DC) were 46.8%, 31.0%, 4.3%, 17.9% and 60.4% respectively in the rural population and 29.0%, 17.6%, 1.5%, 51.9%, 59.1% respectively in the urban population. The prevalence of emmetropia decreased with age ( p < 0.001); prevalence of myopia and high myopia increased with age ( p = 0.001) and were associated with nuclear sclerosis ( p = 0.001) in both populations. Hyperopia was commoner among women than men ( p = 0.001); was positively associated with diabetes mellitus ( p = 0.008) in the rural population and negatively with nuclear sclerosis ( p = 0.001) in both populations.
Conclusion: Spectacle use was found to be significantly lower in the rural population. The pattern of refractive errors was significantly different between both populations. |
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