The eye and its primary function, vision, contributes significantly to children's overall well-being and physical, cognitive and social development. Some studies said that children obtain a significant percentage of their knowledge from visual learning, including reading, writing, viewing diagrams and images, and interacting with their environment. Ocular morbidity refers to any clinically eye-related disease regardless of resultant visual loss and includes both blinding causes and non-blinding causes.
Cataracts, glaucoma, vitamin A deficiency, refractive error, trachoma etc., are the significant causes of childhood blindness in India. The vision-threatening morbidities constitute a source of stress and adversity to the affected child, the family, and society. The impact of childhood ocular morbidities lies in that while a lesser percentage of morbidities are congenital, a more significant portion is acquired, treatable and reversible through timely detection and treatment of the disease.
All about childhood ocular morbidity by Dr Rimpika Mahajan, Senior Consultant, Sharp Sight Eye Hospitals.
Child's eyes are not literarily small adult eyes, as the causes and strategies to control childhood and adult ocular morbidities are dissimilar. A delay in treating childhood ocular morbidities can lead to permanent visual impairment and possible mortality. It is quite worrisome that visually impaired children have many years ahead to cope with the disability with untoward negative implications for educational and social development. Also, various surveys of children's ocular health have indicated the magnitude of eye diseases and the importance of visual surveys among children.
Ocular morbidities in children also seriously impact their development, education and quality of life; hence, it requires prompt attention. However, since most ocular morbidities are preventable or treatable, affordable services for ocular morbidity and early-age screening are effective methods to reduce this load.
