Teachers' Knowledge of Vision Disorders in Primary School Children in Port Harcourt.

Abstract

Abstract background: Vision disorders are important causes of childhood morbidity worldwide and if undetected, can lead to poor academic performance. Teachers can be trained to heighten their awareness and knowledge of common childhood vision disorders, thus enabling them to observe visual difficulties in pupils and notify caregivers for further evaluation and treatment in the context of the "School Health Programme."

Objective: To determine the effects of training on teachers' knowledge of childhood vision disorders.

Subjects and Methods: Using multi-staged sampling technique, a self-designed and selfadministered questionnaire was used to obtain information on teachers' knowledge of common childhood vision disorders, before and after six hours training. The pre and post test results were compared and analyzed.

Results: The teachers consisted of 110 females (84.6 percent) and 20 males (15.4 percent). Seventy (53.8 percent) were from public schools, while 60 (46.2 percent) were from private schools. Before training, 74 (56.9 percent) teachers were aware of school entry vision screening and 14 teachers (10.8 percent) affirmed that vision problems might cause poor academic performance. With training, there was a significant improvement in the awareness to 76.9 percent and knowledge of vision disorders such as hypermetropia (p=0.002) and corneal opacity (p=0.000) increased significantly. School-type and educational qualification were found to affect the knowledge of childhood vision disorders.

Conclusion: Primary school teachers had significant improvements in their knowledge of childhood vision disorders and ways to identify affected children in the classroom, following short term training. Such training should enable early detection of school children with vision disorders by their teachers, for purposes of early intervention and treatment.

Keywords: School children, Vision disorders, Teachers' knowledge