PARENTAL PERCEPTIONS AND PRACTICES REGARDING EYE HEALTH OF CHILDREN: A STUDY FROM A TEACHING HOSPITAL OF COASTAL KARNATAKA.

Dr Shama Sharief, Dr Vidya Hegde

Abstract


Aims: To assess the perceptions and practices followed by parents regarding eye health of their children.
Setting & Design: A questionnaire based study done in a teaching hospital of coastal Karnataka.
Material & Method: A cross-sectional study amongst 96 parents attending tertiary health care centre and camps conducted by the same centre, through a self designed validated questionnaire.
Results: Age of the respondents ranged from 23 to 55 years. Majority (79.16%) were females. 69.79% and 90.62% of the parents knew that cataract and strabismus can occur in children respectively. Amblyopia as a complication of untreated refractive error was not known to 56.25% of the participants. Participants got the information about ocular conditions mainly from newspaper 70.83%. Overall knowledge regarding the use of different mode of treatments for the ocular conditions was good except patching. Parents (66.66%) preferred to take their children to an Ophthalmologist .The reason for not consulting a doctor for ocular conditions was found to be time and financial constraints.

Conclusion: Parents were aware of common eye problems in children. Information about ocular health among parents was largely acquired through the newspaper which can be used as a tool to spread awareness. Increased awareness about these is required to positively affect the eye-care seeking behavior of parents for their children, thereby reducing visual impairment in this population.


Keywords


Parental perceptions, Ocular care, Pediatric age, Parental practice

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