ABSTRACT
Purpose: The eye health knowledge and awareness of educators is very critical as this can go a long way in influencing eye health behavior in school children in particular and the entire community. Eye health promotion through education by school teachers and vision screening programs in schools can help to detect, offer treatment or make referrals for children having refractive error as well as prevent and treat other eye diseases. However, little is known about the perception of teachers as it concerns issues relating to eye health in our primary schools. This study aims to assess primary school teachers’ knowledge and practices as it concerns the eye health of pupils in Alimoso Local Government Area, Lagos.
Methods: This was a cross-sectional observational study of teachers of primary school teachers. 422 teachers were selected from 20 public schools and 12 private schools using a simple random sampling technique. Public and Private school teachers from the five administrative divisions of Alimoso LGA participated in this study. A semi-structured self-administered questionnaire was utilized. Knowledge scores of teachers in private and public schools were compared using the independent sample t- test. The same test was used to compare knowledge scores of both genders while knowledge scores of teachers with the different educational attainments were compared using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). ANOVA was also used to compare knowledge scores of teachers in the four different age groups. Data was analyzed using IBM SPSS version 22 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). All statistical tests were carried out using 0.05 as the level of significance. Knowledge scores for possible signs of vision problems, ability to physically recognize an ocular anomaly, specific preventive measures and overall eye health knowledge were calculated and then computed.
Results: The average overall knowledge score of teachers in percentage was 58.12±15.10 which was moderate. Teachers’ knowledge of possible warning signs of vision problems and knowledge of prevention were also moderate at 63.73±28.58 and 56.40±24.83 respectively. In contras
t, teachers’ ability to recognize an ocular disorder was high at 80.26±16.76. While the type of school (public or private), gender and age had no impact on the overall knowledge of teachers (P=0.349 and P=0.119 respectively), knowledge scores was found to increase as the level of education also increased. Level of education was found to be a significant predictor of knowledge. (F= 12.060, P = 0.000). A vast majority (81%) of the teachers would isolate a child and/or send the affected child home in the event of an eye infection. Over 80% of teachers informed the parent and counseled them to go to the eye hospital whenever they noticed a vision disorder in their pupils.
Conclusion: There was a significant gap in the eye health knowledge of primary school teachers. Novel approaches by government and school administrators are required to improve teachers’ eye health perception.
Keywords: Eye health, Perception, teachers, Students.
