Volume 25, Issue 117, November 2021

Level of awareness and perception of parents about amblyopia in children in AL-Baha city, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA)

Mahadi Bashir¹, Abdullah Abu Melha², Ameera Faisal Alghamdi^3♦, Fatimah Hamad AL Hamad³, Areej Eidhah Alzhrani³, Mostafa Mohamed Embaby⁴

¹MD Ophthalmology, Consultant of ophthalmology, Assistant Professor. Faculty of Medicine, Al-Baha University, Saudi Arabia
²Ophthalmology consultant, King Fahad Hospital at Al-Baha, Saudi Arabia
³Medical intern, College of medicine, Al-Baha University, Saudi Arabia
⁴Assistant professor, pediatric department college of medicine, Assiut University, Egypt

^♦Corresponding author
Medical intern, College of medicine, Al-Baha University, Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT

Background: Amblyopia is the most common cause of monocular visual loss in children. It can be easily treated or prevented if recognized early, but due to lack of knowledge about the disease, it can be easily missed. Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess parents’ perception and awareness about amblyopia among children in terms of causes, risk factors, symptoms, diagnosis and management at Al-Baha region, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Methods: A cross-sectional study that used an online questionnaire targeting parents of Al-Baha city, Saudi Arabia. The statistical analysis was done using the statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS, version 27.0). Results: A total of 342 responses were received, all of the participants were from Al-Baha region. Based on a total of 13 questions regarding lazy eye disease, only 25.1% of participants had good knowledge about the disease. The most commonly reported source of knowledge to provide good knowledge about amblyopia was “ophthalmologist”. Most of the participants were females (83.3%) and they were observed to be more knowledgeable about the disease than males (16.7%). Moreover, more than 50% of the participants showed a lack of knowledge about amblyopia’s causes, risk factors, diagnosis and management. Conclusion: The results are consistent with what previous studies concluded, which is a significant lack of knowledge regarding amblyopia. Thus, spreading awareness about the disease is crucial for early identification and treatment which will eventually decrease the burden of the disease on children and prevent unilateral visual impairment.

Keywords: Amblyopia, Saudi, Eye disease, Perception, Awareness, Knowledge

Medical Science, 2021, 25(117), 2827-2833

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