Prevalence of Uncorrected Refractive Errors Among Adults Attending at a Tertiary Care Hospital – A Retrospective Study

Background: This hospital-based study was done to estimate the prevalence of uncorrected refractive errors in adults attending to our outpatient department (OPD). Aims and Objectives: 1. To estimate the prevalence of uncorrected refractive errors in adults attending to our OPD. 2. Effects of uncorrected refractive errors on education, social life, job, psychological impact. Materials and Methods: In this hospital-based retrospective study, 570 refractive error patients above 18 years of age were included. All known cases of refractive error, not using glasses, were also included in this study. As per the WHO criteria, visual acuity <6/18 of Snellen visual acuity chart was taken as visually impaired while legal blindness was defined as visual acuity of 6/60 or less. Those who had ocular or any kind of systemic illness were excluded from this study. Manual retinoscopy followed by subjective verification, detailed slit lamp examination, and dilated fundus evaluation was done in all cases at the time of presentation. Postmydriatic refraction was mandatory in all who were below 21 years of age. All statistical analysis later on conducted in SPSS version 27 retrospectively. Results: Out of 570 patients with refractive error analyzed, 55.81% (N = 317) were found males and 44.19% (N = 251) were females. Refractive error was 50.18% (N = 285) among Hindu population whereas in the Muslim population, it was found 49.82% (N = 283). Refractive error was mostly encountered in students (46.65%, N = 265) followed by housewives (31.87%, N = 181). The most common cause of hospital visit was headache (71.48%, N = 406). The most common refractive error was compound myopic astigmatism (43.56%, N = 248). The prevalence of refractive error was 3.8% with a legal blindness of 39.40% (N = 99) in male and 37.10% (N = 118) in female. A total of 435 (76.58%) patients were freshly diagnosed in our study. A total of 20.25% (N = 115) patients refused to wear glasses because of social factors. A total of 2.10% (N = 12) patients were rejected ...