Abstract

Strabismus is a state of abnormal alignment of the two eyes which could result in the image of the fixating eye falling on the fovea while the image of the non-fixating eye is focused on an extra-foveal region. The aim of this research isto determine the prevalence of lateral strabismus in school children aged between 5-15years in Asaba metropolis, Delta State, Nigeria. A total of 258 subjects aged between 5-15years (mean age= 10.1±2.3years) were recruited for this study. This comprised of 129 (50%) males and 129 (50%) females (ratio 1:1). The magnitude of tropia (exo – eso) per subject was determined using prism bars and loose prisms. The results showed that of the total 129 male subjects, 4 (1.6%) had esotropia while 1(0.4%) had exotropia. For the female population, of the total 129 females, 5(1.9%) had esotropia while 3 (1.2%) had exotropia. Data obtained from this study were analyzed using descriptive statistics (tables,and pie charts), Chi-square analysis and Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), version 22.0. The prevalence of strabismus was13(5%) in the study population. Strabismus was also found to be significantly more common with the female gender 8(3.1%) than the male 5 (1.9%). Esotropia was found to be the most dominant type of strabismus 9(3.5%) in the study population. This study strongly recommends that School authorities in developing countries should adopt eye examination as entry level and as well, encourage yearly vision screening for their students and pupils to detect the presence of refractive errors, strabismus and other conditions that can cause strabismus.