Abstract

Dr. Muhammad Hammad Subhani, Dr. Sehresh Aslam and Dr. Shumaila Tabassum*

ABSTRACT

Background: In past usually adults over 40 years of age used to wear spectacles. But now a days we see children and adolescents with spectacles/contact lenses. There is dramatic increase in refractive error among medical students. Medical education involves extensive near work such as reading and writing have been associated with greater myopia prevalence. Refractive error defined as a problem in which eye cannot clearly focus the images from the outside world on retina. Myopia is a refractive error in which eye fails to see distant objects properly. Objectives of the study: To determine frequency of myopia in young medical students and its association with underlying factors like, parental history, gender, reading and electronic device usage. Material and Methodology: A total of 200 students at Sheikh Zayed Medical College Lahore were included in study with their informed consent. A questionnaire was designed data was collected and analyzed using SPSS and Microsoft excel. Type of study was cross sectional and type of sampling was Non Probability Convenient. Result: The mean age of 2nd year students was 22 years. Out of total 200 students, 68% were myopic. 5.9% were in the age group of 18-20 years, 83.8% in 21-23 years and 10.3% were 24-26 years of age. 66.2 % students were females. Family history of myopia was positive in 73.5% students. Genetic history of myopia is positive in 66.2%. The study hours of 19.2% students were ? 2 hour, 2-8 hours in 66.2% and > 8 hours per day in 11%. The duration of TV watching was 4 hours in 30.9% children.16.2 % of the students were spending their time on smart phones for 4 hours. 8.8% students have less than 6 hours sleeping time, 64.7% students who sleep 6 to 8 hours and 26.5% more than 8 hours. Conclusion: From our study we concluded that Myopia is affecting majority of 2nd year MBBS students. There is strong association of myopia with near work and with family and genetic history of myopia.