Aim: To determine prevalence of refractive errors & underlying factors amongst students of Islam Medical College, Sialkot.

Study design:  Descriptive cross sectional study.

Place and duration:  At Islam Medical College, Sialkot, from August to October 2019

Methods: Our study was descriptive cross sectional study, evaluated by the formulation of a detailed questionnaire, which was answered by all respondents. One hundred and fifty students doing MBBS were selected by simple random sampling. The data was analysed using IBM SPSS.

Results: It was found out that refractive errors were present in 93 out of 150 (62%) medical students of Islam medical college. Prevalence of myopia (59.3%) was found to be the commonest type of refractive error (95.7% of those having refractive errors). On the same hand the possible underlying factors for causation of refractive errors were mainly found to be present in majority of the people having refractive errors. The greater number of the people responded about their feeling better after wearing spectacles.

Conclusion: Arising from our this study; the significance of the prevalence of refractive errors especially myopia, the presence of possible underlying factors and the positive effect of wearing the spectacles, in the students of Islam Medical College Sialkot, has been  highlighted.

Keywords: Ametropes, Emmetropes, Medical students, prevalence, refractive errors, underlying factors,