Screening of refractive error among primary school students at Tanta City Gharbia Governorate Egypt. How serious is the problem

Objectives: Determine the prevalence of refractive errors among school children comparing governmental and non-governmental schools.Patients and methods: This study was a school-based cross-sectional comparative study, conducted in Tanta city, Gharbia governorate in the middle of the Delta region, Egypt from January and April 2016. The study included 1075 students from Two groups of primary schools private and governmental. Sociodemographic data collected for all student and full ophthalmic examination were done.Results: The prevalence of refractive error in our study was 22.1% of all students, only 35.7% of RE students wore glasses before our screening and suspected amblyopia cases who were 31.1% of RE students (6.9% of all students). Distribution of different types of refractive error showed that astigmatism most common followed by myopia and lastly hyperopia (68.1%, 17.6%, and 14.3% respectively).Conclusion: About one-fourth of the students had a refractive error with high suspected amblyopia. Most of the refractive error cases especially in governmental school were first detected during our study.