ISSN: 2578-465X
Authors: V. Akshaya
Aim: To determine Refractive error awareness among School Teachers and to analyse Educational Qualification of School Teachers is in association with Refractive error Awareness. Setting and Design: Cross Sectional Study design with online questionnaire based survey performed from June 2022 to August 2022. Materials and Methods: 460 School Teachers of 22 Schools participated in this study. Validated questionnaire was distributed in English and Tamil Format through WhatsApp as Google Form. Referral letter regarding the project was given to District Educational Officer, Chief Educational Officer, Assistant Educational Officer, and Headmaster. Participant Information sheet and Informed consent was given to School Teachers. Data was calculated based on median score. Normality testing was done. Statistical analysis SPSS and MS EXCEL was used and Chi-square test was done to determine association between Educational qualification and Refractive error awareness. Result: 460 participants responded to the Questionnaire with mean age group (36.76 ± 8.67) years and mean Teaching Experience group (21.70 ± 0.65) years School Teachers participated in this study 387(84%) Female and 73(16%) Male. Chi Square test was done to determine association on Educational qualification with Knowledge (X2=1.981 p value=0.159) and Attitude (X2=1.077, p value=0.299), and also to determine association with Gender on Knowledge (X2=19.769, p value=0.011) and Attitude (X2=9.171, p value=0.328). Conclusion: This present study concludes that awareness does not depend on Educational qualification, since awareness level is less and steps need to be taken to prevent visual impairment.
Keywords: Refractive Error; Knowledge; Attitude; Visual Impairment; Blindness; Retina; Vision
