Abstract:

Background: Several studies reported about the prevalence of refractive error among children as well as various age group. Hardly any study reported about the perception of refractive error among adolescents. The purpose of the study was to examine the level perception regard to refractive error in adolescents, rural region of India.

Objectives: The aim of the study to find the level of perception of refractive error among adolescents, Andhra Pradesh, India.

Materials and Methods: A purposive sampling method was applied to choose 50 subjects aged between 16 years to 18 years from the rural population of Andhra Pradesh were considered for analysis. A self-designed questionnaire with open-ended and closed-ended questions was designed to gather the participants' demographic data such as gender, age, majors, socioeconomic status of the parent, as well as their perception toward refractive error was analysed using a Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS 10.0.5) (SPSS Inc. Chicago, USA).

Results: A total of 50 participants' (n=50) responded to a five-point Likert's scale comprising of 11test items. Out of the 11 test item, 5 item mean score found between 4.06 – 4.42 with SD ± 0.9 -1.3 showed consistently high responses as “strongly agree”. Whereas, four-item mean score ranges from 3.18- 3.86 with SD ± 1.3-1.53 reflected as "agree". Furthermore, 2 test items mean score 4.18-4.36 with SD ± 1.5-1.6 found the responses as "Neutral". However, there is no test item mean score as "disagree" and "strongly disagree" reported by the participant.

Conclusion: perception of refractive error among adolescents found to be poor in this study.

Keyword: Perception, Refractive Error, Adolescents, Refractive Correction and Methods.

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