Students with Keratoconus Disease in Saudi Arabia

The Effect of Keratoconus Disease on the Education Levels among Students at Different Ages to Determine the Locations of Their Spread in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Introduction Keratoconus disease is a disorder in the curvature of the eyes. Keratoconus occurs when the cornea becomes thin and bulges like a cone, altering the focus of light rays, blurring and distorting the person’s vision, and making it difficult to do daily tasks such as reading.

The disease is believed to be genetic and typical onset begins in the teens or early 20s and gradually worsens over a period of 10 to 20 years. Purpose of the Study As keratoconus is thought to be hereditary, the study of its prevalence in among endogamous marriage groups could be beneficial in developing a better understanding of how this disease is spread.

Among certain regions and groups in Saudi Arabia as well as throughout the Middle East, endogamy and disease prevalence have been identified as having a strong correlation (Jaber, Shohat, Rotter & Shohat, 1997; Millodot, Shneor, Albou, Atlani & Gordon-Shaag, 2011; Khan, Abu-Safieh, Eisenberger, Bolz & Alkuraya, 2013; Gordon-Shaag, Millodot, Shneor & Liu, 2015). Moreover, a study that focuses primarily on the student population impacted by keratoconus could be beneficial in helping to determine locations of the spread of the disease throughout the KSA.

Since students between the ages of 14 and 22 are the individuals most likely to make complaints of poor eyesight, this population should be studied in order to plot the locations where keratoconus is most prevalent. Students may leave their homes or their communities to study in other colleges. By examining their condition and obtaining data regarding their origins, this study could pinpoint precisely where keratoconus is most likely to occur in the future.

Background Assiri, Yousuf, Quantock & Murphy (2005) show that the incidence and associated signs and symptoms of patients with keratoconus in Saudi Arabia is high “with an early onset and more rapid progress to the severe disease stage at a young age” which may very well “reflect the influence of genetic and/or environmental factor(s) in the aetiology of keratoconus” (p. 1403).

In order to better understand the environmental factors that play a role in the etiology of keratoconus, a broader survey of young persons is needed to fill the present gap in literature. Abu-Amero, Al-Muammar & Kondkar (2014) state that keratoconus “has a complex multifactorial etiology, with environmental, behavioral, and multiple genetic components contributing to the disease pathophysiology” (p. 1), which is why more study needs to be conducted in order to understand the pathways by which this disease develops and spreads.

By examining students and the effect of keratoconus disease on the education levels among students at different ages to determine the locations of their spread in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, this study can help to provide an adequate foundation for future research to the extent that it provides deeper access to knowledge of those pathways through a broad and extensive survey. Method The method to be employed in this study would be the survey method with participants acquired via snowball sampling.

The survey method using self-reported data from social media users (who are primarily mostly student-aged in the KSA) would be the primary way to obtain data about students who have keratoconus, where they are from, their age, and where they are studying. The survey would be passed to individuals using social media sites like Facebook, which has a very considerable popularity among students in the KSA.

According to Statista (2018), nearly 10 million persons in Saudi Arabia make use of Facebook and that number is expected to continue to grow over the coming years based on the previous year-over-year growth of the past decade. Analysis The data would be analyzed using content analysis so that themes which are associated with the students’ responses can be categorized and correlated with the specific records that the students provide about themselves and their condition, their education level and their origins.

The variables that this study would examine are: student home region, student age, student education level, disease status of the student, school at which the student is enrolled, family history of keratoconus, and date of onset of keratoconus in the student’s eyes. These variables would provide the study with a strong set of data that could then be used in future research to assess whether predictive variables can be spotted among data sets.

Bivariate analysis would also be conducted to measure correlation among the different variables that are examined, with Pearson, Kendall and Spearman statistical tests conducted. These tests would help to determine the significance of correlation among variables. Conclusion The findings obtained from this study would allow recommendations to be made to direct future research and to help establish predictors as to who is at risk for keratoconus and where, based on the evidence obtained in this study. If high.