Prevalence of malnourished students and their visual abnormalities in rural Tripura

Aim: Prevalence of ocular manifestations in malnourished students attending in different seiner basic schools of rural Tripura. Material & Method: A cross-sectional study was carried out in different rural seiner basic schools of Tripura, with the of age group 10 - 14 years. All students underwent detailed systemic and ocular examination. The results were analyzed statistically. Results: In our study the prevalence of malnourished students were 247(28.10%). Girls’ students were more sufferer than boys. Out of 247 malnourished students, where 44 (17.81%) boys and 49 (19.84%) girls had night blind ness; 08 (3.24%) boys and 13 (5.26%) girls had Bitot’s spot; 22 (8.91%) boys and 30 (12.15%) girls had blepharitis; 5(2.02%) boys and 6(2.43%) girls had corneal ulcer; 15(6.07%) boys and 20(8.10%) girls had Allergic Conjunctivitis; 15(6.07%) boys and 22(8.91%) girls had Phlyctenular Conjunctivitis in different age groups. There is significant difference of ocular involvement between malnourished and well nourished. Conclusion: Overall prevalence of malnourished students was found different rural schools in our study. This may be probably due to the negligence of vaccination in their childhood life and the proper nutritional supplements were not being provided to them from different appropriate sources through various national programme.