Prevalence and associated factors of low vision and blindness among patients attending St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Abstract

BackgroundLow vision and blindness are major public health problems. A vast burden of worlds visually impaired live in low-income settings especially in sub Saharan Africa. In such settings the blindness is associated with considerable disability and excess mortality, resulting in huge economic and social consequence. The main purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence and associated factors of low vision and blindness among patients at St. Paul’s hospital millenium medical college.MethodsInstitution based cross sectional design study was carried out from January to April, 2017 with sample size of 904. Systematic random sampling was used to recruit the study subjects. Retrospective medical chart review was done; data was entered into and analyzed by SPSS 23. Descriptive statistics such as frequency cross tabulation and chi-square test was carried out to translate data into information. P-value less than 0.05 was considered as statistically significant.ResultsA total of 881 subjects with a response rate of 97.4% selected. The mean age of the study subjects was 44.53(SD: ± 21.85) with a range of 1–100 years. The prevalence of low vision and blindness was 91 (10.3% (95% CI: 8.2, 12.3)), and 64 (7.3 95%CI: 5.7, 9.0)) respectively. Age (p-value < 0.001), cataract (p-value = 0.002), glaucoma (p-value = 0.002) and age related macular degeneration (p-value < 0.001) were significantly associated with low vision and blindness.ConclusionLow vision and blindness found in this study was high. Age, cataract, glaucoma and age related macular degeneration were significantly associated with low vision and blindness. This amount of magnitude will be reduced if prevention, early diagnosis and management will be targeted towards avoidable causes of visual impairment.

Magnitude of visual impairment and associated factors among patients attending ophthalmic clinics of Debre Markos referral hospital, north West Ethiopia

“…Previous studies conducted globally and in different European and African countries including Ethiopia showed that being older age [ 12 – 22 ], rural residency [ 16 , 23 ], lower educational status [ 14 – 16 , 23 , 24 ], low monthly income [ 15 , 16 , 23 , 25 ], cataract [ 4 , 12 , 13 , 20 – 22 , 24 , 26 ], glaucoma [ 4 , 13 , 21 , 22 , 26 ], macular degeneration [ 4 – 6 , 17 , 22 , 26 – 28 ], chronic comorbid illnesses [ 12 , 15 , 20 , 26 , 29 – 31 ] and smoking [ 15 , 32 ] were factors associated with unilateral or bilateral visual impairment.…”

“…Most studies conducted in Ethiopia were focused on childhood visual impairment giving less attention to adulthood visual impairment [ 35 , 36 ], some studies were conducted as retrospective chart review which lacks some variables like family history of eye disease, history of eye trauma, chronic co morbidity and life style factors [ 21 , 22 ] and others were community surveys that are outdated and lacks clinical variables of visual impairment [ 5 ]. In Ethiopia, there are also newly emerging factors of visual impairment associated with chronic diseases and advancement in age.…”

Self-reported fall and associated factors among adult people with visual impairment in Gondar, Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study

“…Visual impairment is more prevalent in low and middle-income countries (LMICs), about 80-90% of the world's visually impaired people live in LMICs [7]. In Sub-Saharan African countries, about 70 million people had been reported to live with visual impairment and Ethiopia is believed to have one of the world's highest rates of blindness and low vision, of which about 80% is preventable or treatable [8,9].…”

Prevalence of cataract and its associated factors among adults aged 40 years and above in Waghimra zone, Amhara, Northeast Ethiopia: A Community based cross-sectional study

“…The good news is that more than two third of this visual impairment and blindness can be avoidable either by prevention and treatment. According to 'vision 2020 the right to sight' plan, in 2020 preventable and avoidable causes of visual impairment and blindness will be reduced significantly to less than 0.5% in all countries or less than 1% in any community worldwide (18,19).…”