Abstract

JIMENEZ RODRIGUEZ, Giselle; HERNANDEZ SANTOS, Lourdes Rita  and  SOTO GARCIA, Maby. Amblyopia found in school children of "Juventud de Acero" elementary school located in Caimito municipality. Rev Cubana Oftalmol [online]. 2013, vol.26, suppl.1, pp. 593-604. ISSN 0864-2176.

Objective: to determine the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of amblyopia in school children from "Juventud de Acero" elementary school in Caimito municipality, Artemisa province. Method: an observational, descriptive and cross-sectional study conducted in 5 through 11 years-old children from January to June 2011. The universe of study was 459 students, who attended the school during the 2011-2012 academic year. The final sample comprised 403 children whose visual acuity without correction was estimated; those with visual acuity smaller than 1.0 underwent ophthalmological test and refraction. The studied variables were age, sex, refractive error, etiology and severity of amblyopia. Results: it was confirmed that amblyopia affected 4.2 % of students, 76.5 % of whom presented unilateral amblyopia. The females represented 70.6% whereas children aged 7 and 8 years accounted for 35.4 % and 29.4 %, respectively. Mixed myopic astigmatism was detected in 20.8 % and the compound myopic in 16.7 % of studied children. The anisometropic amblyopia was observed in 47.0 %, followed by the refractive type in 35.3 %, being the slight form observed in 76.2 % and the acute form in 4.8 % of eyes. Conclusions: the frequency of amblyopia occurrence was low, and the unilateral type was the most observed mainly associated to anisometropia. The female students and those school children aged 7 and 8 years were the most affected. The most frequent refractive defect was mixed astigmatism. Slight amblyopia of anisometropic etiology prevailed.

Keywords : amblyopia; school children; population studies.

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