Background Globally, ocular morbidity has emerged as a major public concern with at least 2.2 billion people having vision impairment or blindness. Prisoners (inmates) tend to have limited access to health care especially eye health, and as a result some conditions may go undiagnosed or mismanaged. With the increasing prison population in Uganda and in the face of limited facilities, little is known about the prevalence and factors associated with ocular morbidity amongst inmates of Luzira prison. Method This was a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted on inmates of Luzira prison. The study included both male (334) and female (33) inmates using the proportionate stratified random sampling. Data on social demographic characteristics, medical, imprisonment factors and ocular assessment was collected using a questionnaire. All complete data was entered using an Epidata version 3.1 entry template, and logistic regression was used to determine associated factors. Results Overall, a total of 367 inmates were examined consisting of 334 (91%) males and 33(8.9%) females. The male-to-female ratio was 10:1 with ages ranging from 18 to 76 years. The mean age being 39 years (SD + 13.4) and the overall ocular morbidity was found to be 49%. The most common ocular morbidity included; presbyopia (27.4%), allergic conjunctivitis (19.6%) and cataracts (11.4%). Other disorders included; refractive errors, pterygia, optic atrophy and vitamin A deficiency. There was a statistically significant relationship between ocular morbidity and age (OR 11.96, CI 0.85–2.74), trauma (OR 5.21, CI 1.52–17.87), non-prison food (OR 0.45, CI 0.26–0.79). Conclusion The prevalence of ocular morbidity among inmates was found to be high and significantly associated with age, trauma and having meals besides prison food. A fully functional eye unit established within the prison, and timely referral of complicated cases would help in offering quality eye services to the inmates.

Background: Raised intraocular pressure (IOP) is a major risk factor for glaucoma. Hypertensive patients are at a risk of developing and progression of Open Angle Glaucoma (OAG) which is a major cause of blindness in the world. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of raised IOP and associated factors among hypertensive patients attending the hypertension clinic at Mulago National Referral Hospital in Uganda. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from December 2018 to March 2019. Our sample comprised hypertensive patients recruited after obtaining consent. Participants were sampled consecutively and underwent both a general medical and ocular examination. A questionnaire was used to collect data on socio-demographic characteristics, ocular and medical factors. Data were entered into the computer using the statistical data package of Epidata version 3.1 and exported to STATA version 14 for analysis. Results: Of the 405 hypertensive study participants, mean age was 57.1 years (range 25 to 90 years, SD = 12.4 years). The overall prevalence of raised intraocular pressure was 11.6% (95% CI 8.8-15.1). The mean IOP among all participants was 15.2 mmHg (SD = 4.3) with a range of 3-34 mmHg. The factors with a statistically significant association with raised intraocular pressure after multivariate analysis were a positive family history of Glaucoma (OR 57,

Background: Globally, ocular morbidity has emerged as a major public concern with over 284 million people visually impaired. Prisoners(inmates) tend to have limited access to health care especially eye health and as a result some conditions may go undiagnosed or mismanaged. With the increasing prison population in Uganda and in the face of limited facilities, little is known about the prevalence and factors associated with ocular morbidity amongst prisoners(inmates) of Luzira prison.Method: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted on inmates of Luzira prison. The study included both male (334) and female (33) prisoners(inmates) using the Proportionate Stratified Random Sampling. Data on social demographic characteristics, medical, imprisonment factors and ocular assessment was collected using a questionnaire. All complete data was entered using an Epidata version 3.1 entry template. Logistic regression was used to determine associated factors. Results: Overall, a total of 367 inmates were examined consisting of 334 (91%) males and 33(8.9%) females. The male to female ratio was 10:1. The ages ranged from 18-76 years with mean age of 39 years (SD + 13.4). The overall ocular morbidity was found to be 49 percent. The most common ocular morbidity included; Presbyopia (27.4%), Allergic conjunctivitis (19.6%), Cataracts (11.4%). Other disorders included Refractive errors, Pterygia, Optic atrophy and Vitamin A deficiency. There was a statistically significant relationship between ocular morbidity and Age (OR 11.96, P-value=0.001), Trauma (OR 5.21, P-value 0.009), Non prison food (OR 0.45, P-value=0.006).Conclusion: The prevalence of ocular morbidity among inmates was found to be high. Ocular morbidity was significantly associated with age, trauma and having meals besides prison food. A fully functional eye unit established within the prison with essential drugs and timely referral of complicated cases would help in offering quality eye services to the inmates.

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