Eligibility for the use of ready-made spectacles among children in a school-based programme in Ghana

Asare, Frederick Afum; Morjaria, Priya

Abstract

Ready-made spectacles are low-cost spectacles for correcting refractive errors in children who would otherwise have their refractive errors uncorrected due to lack of availability and affordability of conventional, expensive custom-made spectacles. Thus, this study seeks to estimate the proportion of children with uncorrected refractive errors eligible for ready-made spectacles in a school-based programme. A school-based descriptive cross-sectional study was employed to screen children aged 12–15 years in eighteen public junior high schools within the Bongo district of Ghana. Children who failed the 6/9 acuity test were refracted and given spectacles. Ready-made spectacle was prescribed when visual acuity improved by ≥2 lines in at least one eye with full correction (astigmatism of ≤0.75D); spherical equivalent corrected visual acuity to ≤1 line worse than best corrected visual acuity with full correction in the better eye; and there was ≤1.00D difference between the two eyes. A total of 1,705 school children were examined. Of this number, 30 (1.8%; 95% CI: 1.2–2.5%) met the criteria for refractive correction but none had any. Twenty-six (86.7%; 95% CI: 69.7–95.3%) were found to be eligible for ready-made spectacles (power range: -1.50D to +1.00D, mean spherical equivalent ± SD = -0.27D ± 0.79D) while 4 (13.3%; 95% CI: 4.7–30.3%) were not, hence, given custom-made spectacles. A binary logistic regression analysis revealed that the odds of being eligible for one type of spectacles was similar between males and females (OR: 1.1; 95% CI: 0.1–12.7; p = 0.93). A large proportion of students who met the criteria for spectacle correction could be corrected with ready-made spectacles. There is, therefore, the need for these spectacles to be considered an appropriate alternative for refractive error correction during school eye health programmes.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 15, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Jan 27, 2022
• Publication Date: Jan 27, 2022
• Deposit Date: Oct 10, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 10, 2024
• Journal: PLOS Global Public Health
• Print ISSN: 2767-3375
• Electronic ISSN: 2767-3375
• Publisher: Public Library of Science
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 2
• Issue: 1
• Article Number: e0000079
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0000079
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/13278655