Prevalence of Refractive Error in Young Urban Students in Mozambique

Resumen

PURPOSE: To determine the prevalence of refractive error in the university student population in an urban region in Mozambique and to highlight the relevance of obtaining data of refractive errors in the Southern Africa. METHODS: A cross-sectional study with a random selection of students of university and pre-university courses was conducted in the region of the capital city, Maputo. All the participants were examined at the beginning of 2008/2009 academic course. Measure outcomes included uncorrected visual acuity testing (VA), static retinoscopy and subjective refraction without cycloplegia. RESULTS: A total of 422 subjects (197 males and 225 females) between 17 and 26 years (23.00 ± 2.18 years) were examined. The mean refractive error was -0.16D ± 0.44, and the main cylinder was 0.19D ± 0.35. The most prevalent was emmetropia with a mean percentage of 82.2%. The prevalence of myopia and hyperopia were of 13.0% and 4.8%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of refractive errors in students of urban areas of Mozambique was low, particularly for myopia if we compare those results with European countries. However, they are higher than those reported for non-university students from other populations in Africa.