Amblyopia screening of 4 to 10 years old children in Malatya

Purpose: Amblyopia is a commonly seen disorder, which can be easily scanned and it causes permanent vision loss, if not early treated. The focus group in this thesis is 4 to 10 years-old children in Malatya. The main targets of this thesis is that determining of amblyopia frequency, and to increase perception of this diseases in society. Cases and Methods: Between March 2013 and February 2014, in this study examined 4-10 aged group students in 11 primary schools city center area of Malatya. 7,000 participants were scanned by pediatric autorefractor PlusoptiX AO9 device. Results: Scanned in 7000 participants, 3481 (49.7%) were girls while 3519 (50.3%) were boys. The mean age of the participants was 7.4±2. The number of suspected amblyopia subjects were 357, which 163 (45.6%) of subjects were girls and 194 (54.4%) of subjects were boys. There were no differences between girl subjects and boy subjects (p>0.05). The ophthalmologic examination was normal in 54 of 357 subjects. When 303 (84.90%) subjects with refractive disorders were considered, 52 (14.50%) had myopia, 51 (14.30%) had hypermetropia, 56 (15.70%) had astigmatism, 56 (15.70%) had hypermetropia-astigmatism and 21 (5.90%) had myopia - astigmatism. Amblyopia was diagnosed in 67 (18.8%) subjects. In 12 (3.97%) subjects with refractive disorders, there were also strabismus. Four of these patients had amblyopia. There was no statistically significant difference between girls and boys in terms of the frequency of amblyopia (p = 0.81). In this study, amblyopia frequency was present in 0.95% and refractive disorders were present in 3.37% of the subjects. Discussion: Amblyopia is a situation, which may result in permanent vision loss if not diagnosed and treated in early childhood. It is an endemic, easily screening and curable public health issues. It is recommended that amblyopia should be included screening programme by the Turkish ministry of health. Keywords: Lazy eye, amblyopia, autorefractometer, child, Malatya