Prevalence of Refractive Errors among Medical Students in Tertiary Care Medical Centre Mathuranthakam

Introduction: Refractive errors are apparently more prevalent among the medical students and the incidence is increasing. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted Karpaga Vinayaga Institute Of Medical Science and included 100 medical students. Refractive error was assessed using Snellen?s visual acuity chart and streak retinoscopy. The students were categorized according to their refractive error and the prevalence was calculated. Results: Of 100 students 36% had refractive error. Of these 88% had myopia, 6% had hypermetropia and 6% had astigmatism. Myopes were further divided into mild moderate & severe. It was found that 78% had mild, 18% had moderate and 3% had severe myopia. Conclusion: The commonest refractive error among medical students is myopia of varying grades.