Albinistic Refractive Challenges: a Case Study of People Living with Albinism Resident in Owerri Metropolis in Nigeria.

The study which focused on the refractive errors associated with albinism sourced for biometric refractive status and visual acuity data of eighty albino individuals resident in Owerri metropolis who visited the Imo State University Optometry department clinics and some private owned eye clinics in the city. Observations and investigations made in the eleven month long study revealed that sixty seven of the individuals were oculocutaneous; ten were ocular, and three were albinoids. The subjects who were aged between eleven and sixty years exhibited varying degrees of refractive errors. Results showed that myopia was most prevalent ‘(78.75%), followed by the far distantly placed hyperopia with 11.25% incidence. Astigmatism (which could be associated with myopia or Hyperopia), posed a challenge to only 10% of the study population. The lowest myope was found to be -0.75 OS, while the highest was -5.25 OS. Similarly, the highest hyperope in the study was +3.50 DS, while the lowest was +0.75 Ds. The study also revealed that forty three members of the study population who were myopes had varying degrees of astigmatism as opposed to only four hypropes with identified varying degrees of astigmatism.