Frequency of high myopia among students of University of Lahore

Abstract

The Propose of the study is to investigate the frequency of high myopia in students at the University of Lahore. The total sample size consisted of 1004 participants, including 404 emmetropic individuals, 540 myopic individuals, and 60 individuals with high myopia. The percentages of emmetropia, myopia and high myopia were found to be 40.2%, 53.8%, and 6.0%, respectively. Out of the total participants, 522 were female and 482 were male. Regarding close-up work time, 25 students (2.5%) reported spending 1-2 hours, 239 students (23.8%) reported spending 3-4 hours, 201 students (20%) reported spending 5-6 hours, and 539 students (53.7%) reported spending more than 6 hours on close-up work. In terms of outdoor activities per week, 291 students (29%) engaged in activities 1-2 times a week, 119 students (11.9%) engaged 3-4 times a week, 495 students (49.3%) engaged less than once a week, and 99 students (9.9%) engaged more than 4 times a week. Regarding the time spent outdoors, 210 students (20.9%) spent 1-2 hours, 238 students (23.7%) spent 3-4 hours, 358 students (35.7%) spent more than 4 hours, and 198 students (19.7%) spent less than an hour outdoors. The mean or average age of students was 20.97 years, minimum age of 18 years and maximum of 28 years. Among the 540 myopic students, 306 were female and 234 were male. Furthermore, 54.1% (294 out of 540) of myopic students had family history of high myopia and myopia. The average or mean age of myopic students was 20.84 years, with mean refractive power of -2.0995D in OD and -2.0829D in OS. Among the 60 high myopic students, 32 were female and 28 were male. Approximately 70% of students had family history of myopia and high myopia, while 30% had negative family history. The mean age of high myopic students was 21.12 years, with a mean refractive power of -7.8542D in OD and -8.0625D in OS. Close-up work was the primary activity for approximately 66.7% (40 out of 60) of high myopic students.