Refractive status of patients attending the eye clinic at Fallujah Teaching Hospital in Iraq.

Background: Refractive error (RE) represents a common cause of treatable visual impairment, and studying its epidemiology has been a research interest worldwide. Objectives: To investigate the refractive status of Iraqi patients visiting the eye clinic at Fallujah Teaching Hospital and report the results compared to local and global records. Methods: A hospital-based cross-sectional study analyzed the saved patients' records from the Fallujah eye clinic. The prevalence of myopia, hyperopia, and astigmatism was estimated and analyzed according to gender and age groups in children, adolescents, and adult patients. Results: In children and adolescents under the age of 18 years, the prevalence of emmetropia, myopia, hyperopia, and astigmatism was 34.95%, 19.7%, 20.9%, and 24.6%, respectively. In adult subjects, 29.6% were emmetropic, 16.9% were myopic, 20.7% were hyperopic, and 32.8% were astigmatic. A significant association between RE and age was detected (P = 0.001) but not with gender (P = 0.061). Conclusion: This study found a high prevalence of RE among all age groups, with astigmatism being the most prevalent RE, followed by hyperopia and myopia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]