Association of asthenopia with refractive errors in madrassa students

OBJECTIVE: To determine the association of presenting clinical features of asthenopia in madrassa students with different refractive errors. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted from September-November 2022 at different Madrassas in Lahore, Pakistan. Study was performed on a sample of 108 patients, who had different refractive difficulties. Informed consent was taken from the patients aging ≥18 years and from parents/ guardians of patients aging 16 years of age. Common asthenopic symptoms included hazy vision (n=106; 98.1%), headache (n=93; 86.1%), discomfort (n=79; 73.1%), pain (n=76; 70.4%) and eye strain (n=72; 66.7%). Common refractive errors were myopia (n=59; 54.6%), hypermetropia (n=25; 23.2%) and astigmatism (n=24; 22.2%). Severity of refractive errors was mild in majority of cases of myopia (n=24/59; and hypermetropia (n= and moderate in astigmatism (n=16; 64%). Headache, eye strain and blurring of vision had significant association with myopia, hypermetropia, and astigmatism. CONCLUSION: Myopia and hypermetropia are the most common refractive errors; hazy vision and headache are the common asthenopic symptoms. There is a strong association between asthenopic symptoms and refractive errors.