Background: The population of older adults is growing dramatically. Sadly, this populace is highly prone to develop various ocular morbidities, which if left unattended can lead to blindness.Aim: To determine the distribution of ocular morbidities among older adults at a secondary hospital in Malawi.Methods: This was a retrospective cross-sectional study conducted at Mzimba North District Hospital in Malawi. We retrieved 314 patient records from the hospital's ophthalmic outpatient registry from August 2020 to July 2022 using a nonprobability census sampling technique. Data entry and analysis were done employing SPSS (v.26).Results: More females 164 (52.2%) than males 150 (47.8%) had ocular morbidities.Cataract 108 (34.4%) was the most common ocular morbidity followed by allergic conjunctivitis 104 (33.1%), then pingueculae 44 (14%), and glaucoma 8 (2.5%) Cataract showed a statistically significant difference between males and females (p < 0.05). And Glaucoma portrayed a statistically significant variation according to age groups (p < 0.05). According to the time of the year, most cases were attended to in March compared to August. Conclusion:The majority of blinding conditions among the elderly in Malawi are preventable similar to other geographical settings. Therefore, it is feasible to enhance the quality of life for senior Malawians and lessen the impact of blindness on individuals, families, and communities by addressing preventable causes of blindness through focused interventions.
Background: The population of older adults is growing dramatically. Sadly, this populace is highly prone to develop various ocular morbidities, which if left unattended can lead to blindness. Aim: To determine the distribution of ocular morbidities among older adults at a secondary hospital in Malawi. Methods: This was a retrospective cross-sectional study conducted at Mzimba North District Hospital in Malawi. We retrieved 314 patient records from the hospital’s ophthalmic outpatient registry from August 2020 to July 2022 using a non-probability census sampling technique. Data entry and analysis were done employing SPSS (v.26). Results: More females 164 (52.2%) than males 150 (47.8 %) had ocular morbidities. Cataract 108 (34.4%) was the most common ocular morbidity followed by allergic conjunctivitis 104 (33.1%), then pingueculae 44 (14%), and glaucoma 8 (2.5%) Cataract showed a statistically significant difference between males and females (p<0.05). And Glaucoma portrayed a statistically significant variation according to age groups (p<0.05). According to the time of the year, most cases were attended to in March compared to August. Conclusion: The majority of blinding conditions among the elderly in Malawi are preventable. Thus elderly Malawians above 50 years are encouraged to get a routine eye exam at least once a year.
Background: Globally, there has been a dramatic increase in the geriatric population. Sadly, this populace is highly prone to develop various ocular morbidities. Aim: To determine the distribution of ocular morbidities among elderly. Methods: This was a retrospective cross-sectional study conducted at Mzuzu Central Hospital in Malawi. We retrieved data from the hospital’s ophthalmology out-patient registry from January 2021 to December 2021. A non-probability census sampling technique was used to recruit 970 elderly patients. Data entry and analysis was done employing SPSS (v.26) Results: More males than females had ocular morbidities. Cataract 400 (41.2%) was the most prevalent ocular morbidity followed by glaucoma 189 (19.5%), pinguecula 48 (4.9%) and allergic conjunctivitis 43 (4.4%). Majority of patients were attended to in July. Outer segment diseases were common. The prevalence of cataract, glaucoma, refractive error and allergic conjunctivitis was significantly associated with sex (p<0.05). Age association was found with the prevalence of cataract, glaucoma, pinguecula, allergic conjunctivitis and corneal scar (p<0.05). Conclusion: The pattern of eye diseases is endemic to the country. More resources should be targeting cataract and glaucoma among the age group.
Background Globally, the usage of digital screens is on the rise. Students are among the most users of smartphones in pursuit of academic endeavors. However, digital screens can increase the incidence of various ocular problems. Aim The aim of the study was to examine changes associated with accommodation parameters following the usage of smartphone use among university students. Methods This was a cross-sectional study conducted at Mzuzu University. We recruited 77 undergraduate students using a stratified random sampling technique. Then, we measured AF and AA before and after using a smartphone for 30 minutes while reading N8 optotypes held at 40 cm. We measured AA using the pushup method and recorded the result in diopters and AF using flippers and recorded cycles per second. We entered the data in SPSS version 25. Paired t-test was used to investigate pre and post-smartphone use measurements. We ran a person correlation test to analyze the relationship between age and change in parameters. A one-way ANOVA was used to analyze the association with gender. We considered the value of p < 0.05 statistically significant. Results The change between pre and post-smartphone use was statistically significant across all parameters. According to age, all the parameters increased significantly with an increase in age. However, there was no significant association with gender across all parameters. Conclusion Smartphone usage has an effect on the amplitude of accommodation and accommodative changes. The effect of smartphones on accommodation parameters increases with increasing age. Nevertheless, there are no gender-related differences in accommodative changes following smartphone use. Therefore, elderly users of digital devices in universities should visit eye care practitioners for a full eye examination to enable a better experience with digital devices.
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