Gaurav Kohli
Manu Kohli
Harmanpreet Kaur
Abstract
The human eyes are portals of absorbing divine knowledge from the surrounding world. These two precious pearls need to take proper care throughout to taste life. The eye care starts right from birth onward and becomes keenly required in children’s school age as they use these gifts for intense learning. The neglected care in the initial years may trouble them with various visual disorders and disturb their studies too. Well-structured sensitization programs in these building years can work as a guide to improve eye health among school children. Aim: To compare the impact of the Sensitization program on school children’s knowledge in the control and experimental groups. Setting: Data collection was carried out in two private schools (1 control group and 1 experimental group) in the district of Ludhiana, Punjab. Design: Quasi-experimental design opted. Method and Material: The sample size was calculated with power analysis, and the final sample size with 10% attrition was 102 (51 in Control and 51 in experimental). The non-proportionate stratified sampling was conducted to select the subjects from the 5th, 6th, and 7th standards. The tool consists of section-I demographic characteristics and a section-II Knowledge questionnaire. The reliability of the knowledge questionnaire was calculated with KR20 was 0.81, and the validity of the questionnaire and intervention was established with expert opinions from community health, medical surgical nursing, and optometrists of the private hospitals. Statistics Utilized: Inferential and descriptive statistics. Result: indicates that the post-test knowledge score of the experimental group improved remarkably to good and excellent levels (76.5, 23.5) compared to the control group, where knowledge retained to the level of average and good 35.3, 64.7. There was a significant difference between the Posttest knowledge score of the control and experimental groups. The demographic characteristics had no significant relationship with the knowledge of school-age children regarding refractive errors. Conclusion: The vision of school children is an essential concern of today’s lifestyle, especially when they indulge in books, laptops, and mobiles. The sensitization packages for refractive errors are required to equip the children with a better knowledge to cope with upcoming threats of refractive errors at school age.
Keywords: Impaired vision, visual impairment, visual disorders, school age, eye problems
[This article belongs to Recent Trends in Infectious Diseases(rtid)]
References
St. School-Aged Vision and Visual Skills Needed for School Success. American Optometric Association 2014; 33(800): 567-578.
Dona L., Wong. Wong’s nursing care of infants and children. 8th ed. India: Elsevier; 2007
Sethi S, Kartha GP. Prevalence of refractive errors in school children (12-17 years) of Ahmedabad City. Indian journal of community medicine. 2000 Oct 1;25(4):181.
Rahim R. Refractive error in children in an urban population. British journal of ophthalmology.2008; 93(1):4-10.
Udom OD, Uduak CE. Prevention and Management of Refractive Error Blindness in Nigeria: The Role of Private Optometrists. Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology. 2007; 22(43): 221-230.
Yekta A, Fotouhi A, Hashemi H, Dehghani C, Ostadimoghaddam H, Heravian J, Derakhshan A, Yekta R, Behnia M, Khabazkhoob M. Prevalence of refractive errors among schoolchildren in Shiraz, Iran. Clinical & experimental ophthalmology. 2010 Apr;38(3):242-8.
Jyothi A. Children’s Refractive Error and Eye Ailment Management. Indian Journal of Community Medicine December 2011;79(2): 156-163.
Moghaddam Ranjbar AK S, Pourmazar R. Awareness and attitude toward refractive error correction methods: a population based study in Mashhad, 2013.
Jawahar p, Antony j, k sunny, k Krishan Kumar. Effectiveness of Planned Teaching Programme on Knowledge Regarding Childhood Refractive Errors among Teachers. J Healthcare Nurs Res [Internet]. 2019 [cited 2020Mar15];1. Available from: https://www.pubtexto.com/journals/journal-of-healthcare-and-nursing-research
Sreelatha M, Leela K, Rani PS. A Study to Assess the Knowledge on Refractive Errors and Related Risk Factors of School Children in Selected Government Schools, Tirupati. A Study to Assess the Knowledge on Refractive Errors and Related Risk Factors of School Children in Selected Government Schools, Tirupati. 2019Sep;8(5):66–74.
Kannan U, Rajendiran A, Yeraballi D, Shanmugavel K, John NA, Rene S. Refractive error and associated risk factors in 6-12 years schoolchildren. National Journal of Physiology, Pharmacy and Pharmacology. 2016;6(6):554.
Kohli G, Gupta N, Kohli M, Saini P. Importance of Core Competencies Assessment Scales for Community Health Nurses in India. ECS Transactions. 2022 Apr 24;107(1):3329.
| Volume | 01 |
| Issue | 01 |
| Received | November 18, 2023 |
| Accepted | December 2, 2023 |
| Published | December 27, 2023 |