Epidemiology of childhood blindness : A community-based study in Bangladesh

• This study aimed to investigate the prevalence and causes of childhood blindness in a rural area of Bangladesh. We adopted a cross-sectional quantitative study design for this study, which was performed in three unions (sub-districts) located in Raiganj Upazila of the Sirajganj district in Bangladesh. Using a validated tool, a screening program was conducted at the household level. After initial screening, a team of ophthalmologists confirmed the diagnoses by clinical examinations. The prevalence of childhood blindness was observed to be 6.3 per 10,000 children, whereas the rate of uniocular blindness was 4.8 per 10,000 children. Congenital problems were the major causes of both uniocular and binocular blindness (uniocular blindness: 84% and binocular blindness: 92%). The whole globe was the site responsible for binocular blindness (28.0%, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 13.1, 47.7), whereas the cornea was responsible for uniocular blindness (57.8%, 95% CI: 35.3, 78.1). Childhood blindness is a public health problem in Bangladesh and is highly prevalent, regardless of sex. The major causes of childhood blindness are congenital. © 2019 Hussain et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Subject headings

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Folkhälsovetenskap, global hälsa, socialmedicin och epidemiologi (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

adolescent; age; Article; Bangladesh; binocular blindness; blindness; child; childhood disease; clinical examination; congenital blindness; cross-sectional study; early diagnosis; early intervention; female; human; major clinical study; male; population density; prevalence; public health problem; quantitative study; rural area; sex difference; uniocular blindness; visual system examination; blindness; cornea disease; eye disease; infant; preschool child

Bangladesh; Blindness; Child; Child

Preschool; Corneal Diseases; Economic Status; Eye Diseases; Female; Humans; Infant; Male; Prevalence

Individual and Society VIDSOC

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)