Introduction: One of the most rapidly emerging serious public health problems among children of school going age is visual impairment and undernutrition is a common problem across developing countries like India. Not much literature is available to show the association between BMI and Visual Acuity in school children in Ghaziabad region of Uttar Pradesh. The study was conducted to determine if any correlation exists between BMI, body fat, height and visual acuity.

Material & Methods: 1000 school going children between the ages of 3 to 17 were included in the study. Height and weight were measured using standard procedure; Body Mass Index (BMI) and body fat percentage were calculated. Visual Acuity (VA) for both right (Rt) and left (Lt) eyes were recorded separately using Snellen’s chart.

Statistical Analysis: Data was analysed using one way ANOVA and correlation was done by Spearman correlation using GraphPad Prism 8 software.

Results: Results of the study show that overweight students have significantly decreased Visual acuity when compared to normal weight students. No correlation was found between BMI, Body fat% and Height of the students and their acuity.

Discussion: The present study shows that in a localised urban region among school students, a decreased visual acuity was noticed as students become overweight. This may be related to the more indoor time of these students and more time staring in to a screen which may lead to more near accommodation and less distant accommodation as suggested by other studies as well. Thus, children should be advised to go outdoors more and spend less time looking at screens and have a balanced nutrition.

Keywords: Visual Acuity, Nutrition, BMI, Snellen’s chart, School children, Ghaziabad.

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Dr Abhishek Sinha

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