SynthesisPloS one2022
Prevalence of visual impairment due to refractive error among children and adolescents in Ethiopia: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in PloS one, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 13 citations in OpenAlex.
- Epidemiological investigative report on ocular morbidity in children in rural Kenya.International journal of ophthalmology · 2026Article
- The Fundus Red Reflex Test Using a Smartphone Showed High Accuracy Compared to an Autorefractor to Detect Refractive Errors in Children.Journal of ophthalmic & vision research · 2026Article
- Article
- Prevalence of eye diseases, refractive errors and visual impairments in the Debre Markos referral hospital.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Effectiveness of mobile health based vision screening on uptake of referral services in school children: A randomized control trial.Pakistan journal of medical sciences · 2025Article
- Incidence of eye problems in children aged 3-6 years during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Article
- Prevalence and associated risk factors of visual impairment in school children: mHealth-based vision screening in government schools of Rawalpindi, Pakistan.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Article
- Article
- Prevalence of visual impairment and estimation of refractive errors among school children in Kakamega, Kenya.International journal of ophthalmology · 2024Article
- Prevalence of myopia in school-age children in Ethiopia: A systematic review and meta-analysis.SAGE open medicine · 2023Review
- Prevalence of refractive errors and non-strabismic binocular vision anomalies in symptomatic and asymptomatic university students in Saudi Arabia.Saudi journal of ophthalmology : official journal of the Saudi Ophthalmological SocietyArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
16 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionGlobally, the prevalence of refractive error was 12%, and visual impairment due to refractive error was 2.1%. In sub-Saharan Africa, the prevalence of refractive error and visual impairment due to refractive error was 12.6% and 3.4%, respectively. In Ethiopia, the prevalence of visual impairment due to refractive error varies from 2.5% in the Gurage zone to 12.3% in Hawassa city. Hence, this Meta-analysis aimed to summarize the pooled prevalence of visual impairment due to refractive error in Ethiopia.
methodsA systematic search of the literature was conducted by the authors to identify all relevant primary studies. All articles on the prevalence of visual impairment due to refractive error in Ethiopia were identified through a literature search. The databases used to search for studies were PubMed, Science Direct, POPLINE, HENARI, Google Scholar, and grey literature was searched on Google until December 15, 2021. In this meta-analysis, the presence of publication bias was evaluated using funnel plots and Begg's tests at a significance level of less than 0.05. The sensitivity analysis was conducted to check for a single study's effect on the overall prevalence of refractive error.
resultAbout 1664 studies were retrieved from initial electronic searches using international databases and google searches. A total number of 20,088 children and adolescents were included in this meta-analysis. The pooled prevalence of visual impairment due to refractive error in Ethiopia using the random effects model was estimated to be 6% (95% CI, 5-7) with a significant level of heterogeneity (I2 = 94.4%; p < 0.001). The pooled prevalence of visual impairment due to refractive was analyzed by subtypes, and pooled prevalence was estimated to be 4%, 5.2%, and 1% for myopia, hyperopia, and astigmatism, respectively.
conclusionThe pooled prevalence of visual impairment due to refractive error was high in Ethiopia. About one in twenty-five Ethiopian children and adolescents are affected by visual impairment due to myopia.
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