Myopia awareness and preferences for myopia information: Perception of basic school children in the Kumasi Metropolis and Bekwai Municipality, Ghana

Introduction: Childhood myopia prevalence remains high across the globe, with its development and progression closely linked to environmental and lifestyle factors. Protective lifestyle modification, among children, depends on the dissemination and acquisition of accurate myopia information. Hence, understanding myopia awareness level among children and their preferred modes of receiving myopia information are critical for the design of an effective awareness programme. The current study determined the current level of myopia awareness among basic school children and their preferred methods of myopia awareness creation. Methods: An analytical cross-sectional survey of primary school children from the Kumasi Metropolis and Bekwai Municipality in the Ashanti region of Ghana was conducted using a two-staged cluster sampling technique. Self-administered, pretested semi-structured questionnaire was used to assess myopia awareness and the preferred method of myopia awareness creation. A response of “yes” to the question, “Have you heard about myopia?” indicated awareness. Binary logistic regression was used to examine the relationship of myopia awareness with demographic factors. A p-value ≤0.05 was considered statistically significant at a 95% confidence level. Results: A total of 1420 school children with a mean (SD) age of 13.4 (±1.5) years participated in the study, with the majority being females, 774 (54.5%). Of the 1398 participants responding to myopia awareness questions, 342 (24.5%) reported having heard of myopia. Myopia awareness was significantly associated with age (aOR:1.17, 95%Confidence Interval (95%CI):1.06-1.31, p=0.003), district of residence (aOR=0.26, 95%CI:0.19-0.37, p