도시 초·중·고교 학생 시력저하 및 굴절이상에 관한 보건조사

A Survey of the Visual Impairment and the Refractive Errors in Urban School Children in Korea

The analysis of the visual impairment and refractive errors among 4,004 school children in Seoul in 1986 with ancilliary questionnaire on various socio-environmental and visual factors was conducted. The number of the student with subnormal vision (0.7 or less) was 1,552 (38,8 %), and the rate of subnormal vision was increased with the higher grading of the school classes. Rate of myopes among the 1,552 students vision 0.7 or less consists of 52 % in primary school, 83.5 % in middle school, and 94 % in high school, and they were increased with the higher grading of the school class. The acutest increase of rates were observed at the stages of 2nd year class of male, and 1st year class of female at the middle school. Among the glasses-wearer of myopic students of vision 0.5 or less, the rate of adequately corrected cases was 42.5 %, whereas the overcorrected in 6.8 %, and undercorrected in 49.3 %. The main reasons of glasses negligence among the non-possessor of glasses with the vision of 0.5 or less were indicated in prominence of numbers of' "no complaints without glasses" (42 %). "unawareness of visual disturbance" (20%), "annoyance with wearing glasses" (13.4%), and "no permission from parents" (11.5 %) rather than the "economical reasons". The amblyopic components were estimated 126 cases (3.2%) in combination of refractive errors. According to the analysis of ancilliary questionnaire, the-conclusion with the statistical significance was that the myopization of the children's eyes appeared susceptible with a number of socio-environmental factors including the eating habits, length of T.V. watching period and distance, reading distance and type of illumination during near work, and school achievement. The possibility of prevention in some extents of progress of the myopia following the improvement of the relevant environmental factors in younger stage of children would be considered as deducible one.