Awareness and knowledge of glaucoma among workers in a nigerian tertiary health care institution

Abstract

Purpose:The aim of this study reports the level of awareness and knowledge of glaucoma among selected health care personnel at a health institution in southwestern Nigeria.Materials and Methods:Health personnel at the Federal Medical Centre, Owo, Nigeria, a tertiary health care institution were stratified into a clinical and an administrative directorate. One-hundred twenty participants were selected from each directorate by a random sampling technique. A structured questionnaire was used to collect sociodemographic data and data on the level of knowledge and awareness of glaucoma. Statistical analyses included the independent t-test and Pearson's chi-square test for categorical variables. Statistical significance was indicated by P < 0.05.Results:From the target population of 240 participants, 216 (98 males; 118 females) completed the questionnaire. The mean age of the participants was 35.07 ± 07 years. A total of 148 (68.6%) participants had heard of glaucoma comprising all participants from the clinical directorate and 28 participants from the administrative directorate. There was no statistically significant difference between the clinical and administrative directorates about the knowledge of the aspect of vision that is first affected by glaucoma, the painless nature of glaucoma among most Africans and the irreversible nature of glaucoma-related blindness (P > 0.05, all comparisons).Conclusion:There is the need to update the knowledge base of these workers if they are to be useful in propagating information of the irreversible blindness that could arise from delay in glaucoma diagnosis and treatment.

Awareness and knowledge of glaucoma and associated factors among adults: a cross sectional study in Gondar Town, Northwest Ethiopia

“…Socio-economic variations could explain these differences. Other studies from Ghana (74%) [58], Nigeria (74.3%) [56] and Southwest Nigeria 68.6% [57] also showed higher findings than this study which could partially be explained by variation in participants characteristics. In the former study, participants were glaucoma patients who were aware due to exposure to glaucoma related information [67].…”

Glaucoma Awareness and Self-Care Practices among the Health Professionals in a Medical College Hospital

“…In our study, about 18.8% of the paramedical staff was not even aware of condition called glaucoma. This was similar to a study among health personnel in Nigeria where 4.9% were not aware of the term 'Glaucoma' although other studies in Northern India and Africa, all the health personnel were aware of the condition [12][13][14] [Table/ Fig-8]. This wide difference may be due to the selection criteria of the participants and their experience in the practice of ophthalmology.…”

“…Our study ichhpujani P et al, [12] adegbehingbe bO et al, [13] Komolafe et al, [14] Have not heard of the term "Glaucoma" because an intensive eye examination was not performed [15]. As a matter of fact, sources other than optometrists who have made diagnosis of glaucoma were 4.5 times likely to be late presenters [12].…”

“…These observations about awareness of high IOP was comparable with the study conducted by Icchpujani Pin a tertiary hospital in Northern India [12] (67%), whereas in the study conducted by Adegbehingbe BO in Nigeria [13], it was only 39%. In the study conducted by Komolafe OO in Africa [14], 88.3% professionals knew that glaucoma was due to high pressure in the eye. This probably indicates that the general understanding about glaucoma even among health professionals is about its relation to the intra-ocular pressure and not to the optic nerve damage that results.…”

“…But the knowledge of corticosteroid as a risk factor was low (57%). In the study conducted in Africa, 31.7% thought family history to be a strong risk factor but 26.7% had no knowledge of risk factors for glaucoma [14]. The high awareness about the risk factors may be a reflection of the limitations of close ended structured questionnaire, where the participant has the tendency to tick only because the questions are suggestive of the answers.…”