© 2017 International Journal of Health & Allied Sciences | Published by Wolters Kluwer ‑ Medknow 127 Ocular morbidity among Senior high school students in the Kumasi metropolis, Ghana David Ben Kumah, Mohammed Abdul-Kabir, Reynolds Kwame Ablordeppey, Koi Adu-Gyami, Kweku Bonsu, Bright Asare-Bediako, Ernest Nkansah Kyei Abstract: BACKGROUND: Studies have suggested that the majority of nonblinding eye diseases may be of signiicant burden to the population and health system of developing countries. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of ocular morbidities among senior high school students and their association with age and sex in public senior high schools in the Kumasi metropolis. METHODS: The study was a descriptive cross‑sectional survey. Six hundred and sixty‑two students, with ages ranging from 14 to 20 years, from 12 randomly selected schools were examined and included in the study. The detailed examination included visual acuity measurement, external examination with a pen torch, ophthalmoscopy, +1 blur test, cover test, and subjective refraction. RESULTS: Out of 662 students examined, 90% suffered at least one ocular condition. The most common morbidity was allergy (31.1%), followed by allergic conjunctivitis (22.2%), refractive error (10.0%), dry eye (6.9%), suspicious disc (3.6%), bacterial conjunctivitis (2.9%), foreign body (2.7%), glaucoma suspect (1.4%), and papillitis (0.5%). More females suffered ocular problems than males. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of ocular morbidity among senior high school students in the metropolis is high, with allergies being the most common. Eye health education, regular eye examination, and adequate classroom illumination should be implemented in senior high schools. Keywords: Cross sectional survey, conjunctivitis, ocular morbidity, refractive error, senior high school Introduction C ommon ocular disorders in many countries, especially the United Kingdom and United States were shown to be congenital or hereditary. In India, it is known that one out of every four persons in the country suffers from an eye problem at some point in time. [1] Many studies on ocular morbidity have shown that blindness and vision impairment remain major public health problems that need to be addressed globally. [2‑4] Blinding eye diseases such as cataract, trachoma, glaucoma, and retinal disease have been prioritized by the Word Health Organization in Vision 2020. [5] However, other eye conditions that may affect people’s functionality and quality of life causing them to seek care but do not necessarily lead to blindness are mostly disregarded. [6] As such, the epidemiology of nonblinding diseases such as allergic and infective conjunctivitis, dry eye syndrome, and others which are also very common in the population, especially that of developing countries have not been suficiently investigated. Information concerning the prevalence of ocular morbidity, particularly among senior high school students, in developing countries such as Ghana, is limited. Address for correspondence: Dr. David Ben Kumah, Department of Optometry and Visual Science, B8, COS Building, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, PMB Kumasi, 0023 Ghana. E‑mail: ben56kay@ gmail.com Department of Optometry and Visual Science, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana Short Communication How to cite this article: Kumah DB, Abdul‑Kabir M, Ablordeppey RK, Adu‑Gyamfi K, Bonsu K, Asare‑Bediako B, et al. Ocular morbidity among Senior high school students in the Kumasi metropolis, Ghana. Int J Health Allied Sci 2017;6:127‑31. This is an open access aricle distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as the author is credited and the new creaions are licensed under the idenical terms. For reprints contact: reprints@medknow.com Access this article online Quick Response Code: Website: www.ijhas.in DOI: 10.4103/ijhas.IJHAS_61_16 [Downloaded free from http://www.ijhas.in on Tuesday, April 10, 2018, IP: 129.122.16.32]