Abstract:Objectives: Determine the types and percentage of each refractive errors among primary school aged children in karbala city and its effect on visual acuity.
Patients and methods: This study was a cross-sectional comparative study, conducted in Iraq, Karbala governorate, Imam Husain Center for ophthalmology from January 2023 and January. 2025. The study included 1434 child (total 2868 eyes) with almost equal sex and mean age of 8.95±2.37 years and ranged from 6-12.
Results: Regarding the Astigmatism, the higher proportion was for "-2 to 0" myopic astigmatism (48.7%), followed by "0 to 2" hypermetropic astigmatism (35.3%).
Regarding Hypermetropia, the higher proportion was for low degree "Less than 2" hypermetropia (66%), followed by "2 to 4" group (24%).
Regarding the Myopia, the higher proportion was for "-2 to 0" low degree group (64%), followed by "-4 to -2" (16%). Conclusion: Hypermetropia was more common than myopia in this age group, most of the children were having astigmatism. Myopia and myopic astigmatism were more common in male, while hypermetropia hypermetropic astigmatism were more common in female. Most of the astigmatism were against the role. We may need to cycloplegic refraction in this age group as some of the children with high degree myopia get 6 vision and some of the children with low hypermetropia presented with less than 60 vision.
