ABSTRACT
Children with disabilities are at a substantially higher risk of visual impairment caused by numerous ocular disorders. The visual challenges may be an additional barrier to learning and development. The study was aimed at determining the prevalence and causes of low vision among special need students in Benin City, Edo State. A total of 55 children with special needs, aged 3 to 17, from one special need school were enrolled in this study. Case history, visual acuity, ocular alignment and motility test, refraction, internal and external examination were carried out. Children with visual acuity of less than 6/18 in the better eye after refraction were classified as low vision ( 6/18 -3/60). Result show that 24 (43.64%) children had low vision and the major cause was oculocutaneous albinism (41.7%), and the second leading cause of low vision was refractive error (29.16%). Female with low vision had a more prevalent rate of 13 (54.17%) as against the males with prevalence of 11 (45.83%).The age range with the highest prevalence of low vision was 13-17 (50%). Structural disability had the highest prevalence of low vision (41.7%), followed by developmental disability (29.2%), learning disability (20.8%) and multiple disability (8.3%). Pearson chi-square showed that there was a significant relationship between low vision and age, low vision and gender, low vision and type of disability (p value 0.05). In conclusion, there was a significant high prevalence of low vision in children with structural disability which was caused by oculocutaneous albinism; a hereditary condition without cure and have a high chance of visual impairment. Thus requiring prompt examination and management of visual impairment to improve quality of life.
Keywords: Low vision, special need, oculocutaneous albinism, refractive error, structural disability, developmental disability, learning disability, multiple disability.
