Status of visual impairment among indigenous (Orang Asli) school children in Malaysia

• Published in: BMC public health Vol. 19; no. S4; pp. 543 - 5
• Main Authors: Omar, Rokiah, Wan Abdul, Wan Mohd Hafidz, Knight, Victor Feizal
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 13.06.2019; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Abnormalities; Academic achievement; Acuity; Amblyopia; Asian Continental Ancestry Group - ethnology; Asian Continental Ancestry Group - statistics & numerical data; Blindness; Causes of; Child; Childhood vision disorders; Children; Cross-Sectional Studies; Data collection; Developmental stages; Diagnosis; Disadvantaged children; Elementary school students; Ethnic Groups - statistics & numerical data; Eye; Eye diseases; Eye examination; Eye examinations; Female; Girls; Health aspects; Health screening; Health services; Humans; Hyperopia; Impairment; Indigenous peoples; Learning; Malaysia - epidemiology; Male; Medical screening; Mental development; Minority & ethnic groups; Native peoples; Near work; Orang Asli; Pediatric research; People with disabilities; Population; Prevalence; Public health; Refractive errors; Refractive Errors - epidemiology; Refractive Errors - ethnology; Risk groups; School children; Statistics; Strabismus; Students - statistics & numerical data; Studies; Vision; Vision Disorders - epidemiology; Vision Disorders - ethnology; Vision screening; Vision Tests; Visual Acuity; Visual impairment; Malaysia; Singapore; Orang Asli; Near work; Vision screening; School children; Hyperopia
• ISSN: 1471-2458; 1471-2458
• DOI: 10.1186/s12889-019-6865-3

School children are considered a high-risk group for visual impairment because uncorrected refractive errors and problems such as amblyopia can seriously affect their learning abilities and their physical and mental development. There are many studies reporting the prevalence of refractive errors among school children of different ethnic groups in Malaysia, however, studies concerning the prevalence of refractive errors among indigenous or Orang Asli children are very limited. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine the prevalence and causes of visual impairment among Orang Asli children. One hundred ten Orang Asli children aged 7 to 12 years old in Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia were selected. 51% of these children were boys while the remainders were girls. They underwent visual acuity test, cover test, Hirschberg's test, ocular external assessment and ophthalmoscopy. Children who failed the vision screening were then referred for further eye examination. Of these 110 Orang Asli children, 46 failed the vision screening and subsequently 45 of them were confirmed to have visual problems (40.9% of the total subjects). The main cause of visual impairment in this study was refractive error (34.5% of the total subjects) where the main refractive error found was hyperopia (28.2%) followed by amblyopia (2.7%), strabismus (1.8%) and ocular abnormalities (1.8%). Hence, vision screening and a comprehensive eye examination is very important and needs to be done on all Orang Asli children so that any visual problems can be detect at an early stage to avoid the development of learning difficulties among these already disadvantaged children.