Prevalence of refractive anomalies among youths in Imo State, Nigeria

This study was aimed at determining the prevalence of refractive anomalies among young boys and girls in Imo State. It is a retrospective study in which files of patients from 5 optometry clinics were reviewed; files of 200 patients aged between 18-30 years were randomly selected out of all the files that were reviewed. There were 100 boys and 100 girls. The data collected were classified into five basic refractive anomalies: myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism, myopic astigmatism and hyperopic astigmatism. The data were analyzed using a table based on frequency and percentages of the refractive anomalies, and further represented on a bar chart. It was found that the prevalence of myopia was greater in male (10%) than in female (5%). Hyperopia is more prevalent in female (17%) than in male (12%). For astigmatism, 4% were male while females were 7%. In hyperopic astigmatism, the prevalence was greater in male (47%) than in female (44%). Myopic astigmatism is equal in both boys and girls (27%).