Prevalence of blindness and visual impairement in Atakunmosa west local government area of southwestern Nigeria

Abstract

Blindness survey remains a useful tool for eye care needs assessment. A cross sectional survey of Atakunmosa West Local Government Area, a rural community of southwest Nigeria with no form of eye care facility was carried out. The objective of this study was to define areas of eye care need and develop programme for elimination of avoidable blindness in the region. Multistage cluster sampling technique selected 1,248 respondents across all the eleven health districts. Respondents had visual acuity and ocular examination. Blindness was defined as presenting visual acuity (pva) of <3/60 in the better eye and visual impairment as pva of <6/18 in the better eye. Out of the 1,248 respondents screened, 14 (1.1%) were blind and 78 (6.3%) were visually impaired. There was an increasing risk of blindness and visual impairment with age; occurring more commonly after 60 years of age. The prevalence of blindness and visual impairment were higher in females although not statistically significant (P= 0.70; 0.46 respectively). Blindness was caused mainly by cataract (57.2%), glaucoma (14.3%) and congenital childhood blindness (14.3%). Cataract (57.7%), glaucoma (16.7%) and uncorrected refractive error (15.4%) were the leading causes of visual impairment. Blindness was avoidable in 85.7% of cases. Qualitative and subsidised cataract surgical and refractive services are needed urgently in this region and therefore, the incorporation of eye health care into the existing primary health care system may ensure programme sustainability. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Cataract prevalence in Central-West region of São Paulo State, Brazil

“…Observing data from other Brazilian regions and developing countries, the prevalence of blindness from cataract in the general population is much higher than what was seen here, with 1.49% in the metropolitan region of São Paulo (10) , 2.11% in a Brazilian indigenous group from Amazonia (11) , 2.61% of the whole population in Cambodia (2) ; 4.26% in Nigeria (12) ; 1.17% of the over 50 population in Ruanda and Kenya (13) ; and 2.01% of over 50's in Paraguay (14) . Compared to other Latin American countries, our data is similar to the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires that has 0.5% of bilateral blindness caused by cataract (15) .…”

Bilateral Blindness: Prevalence and Their Utilization of Existing Eye Care Facilities in a Nigerian Rural Community

“…Sample size for the study was determined using EPI INFO V6 statistical software. Accepting a 95% confidence level, a blindness prevalence rate of 1.1% [9] actual population figure of 159,114 [10] for the communities in the Local Government Area, an acceptable error margin of 0.5% and a design effect of 1.2, a minimum sample size of 1,382 was calculated. This Local Government is composed of 13 rural communities with 449 enumeration areas.…”

Eye care practices among commercial drivers in a developing country

“…Driving cessation, regardless of whether it is voluntary or involuntary (example, license revocation), can have a number of adverse consequences such as decreased health-related quality of life, increased likelihood of depression & social isolation and reduced access to healthcare services (3). Comprehensive routine eye care and maintaining good eye care practice is an important part of the health care process that should be adopted by drivers (4). It is an important practice regardless of your age, occupation or your physical health (5).…”

“…Incidentally, most research has revealed age 50 years and below as the mean age of commercial drivers, so this explains how important routine eye check is for drivers (7). Unfortunately, practice of routine eye check is rare in developing countries where the level of illiteracy and poverty is averagely high (4,8).…”