Pattern of Eye Disorders in Ogbodo: A Rural Community in Rivers State
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.60787/tnhj.v11i1.42Keywords:
Pattern of eye disorders, Rural community, Ogbodo, NigeriaAbstract
Background: The incidence and prevalence of poor vision and blindness in the world, especially among the rural communities in developing countries is on the increase. This had led to the WHO/IAPB-driven "Vision2020 right to sight: "global initiative against blindness in rural communities, aimed at reducing global blindness to the barest level by the year 2020. As part of its contribution in the global fight against blindness in the rural communities, Rotary International, a humanitarian global organization encourages all Rotary clubs worldwide to undertake eye- camps in rural communities as part of their community service. We report the pattern of eye disorders found among subjects of Ogbodo, a rural community in the Ikwerre local government area of Rivers state, during a one day Rotary eye camp.
Objectives: To determine the pattern of visual problems and eye disorders in the Ogbodo rural community and to sensitize and educate members of the community about eye care and prevention of blindness.
Methods: The eye camp held in February 2010. All eligible subjects, presenting at the camp had detailed eye examination comprising, visual acuity, refraction, and detailed ophthalmologic evaluation as permissible in a field study. Findings were captured in a pre-designed data sheet for analysis.
Results: One-hundred and thirty-nine subjects were eligible for examination. They comprised 53 males and 86 females (M/F=0.6:1) with a mean age of 36.8 +15.1 years (range 8 to 90 years.). Using WHO criteria for visual assessment, 15.0% of the subjects had low vision in the better eye, with a mean age of 56.3 +12.9 years, 11.6 % were blind, with a mean age of 76.3 + 15.3 years. Vision deteriorated with increasing age. Presbyopia was the commonest error of refraction occurring in 72.9% of the patients with a mean age of 51.9 +12.5 years. Glaucoma(19.4%) with a mean age of 55.1 + 20.8 years; Cataract (11.1%) mean age 65.5 +25.1years; allergic conjunctivitis (17.5%) , mean age 41.5 +21.4 years, and optic atrophy 5.6%, mean age 32.3 + 27.2 years respectively, were the most frequent ophthalmologic disorders encountered. Bilateral blindness was observed in 10(7.2%) of the subjects with cataract being the commonest cause, responsible for 40% of the blindness.
Conclusion: Visual impairment and blindness are common among subjects of the Ogbodo rural community of Rivers state. Presbyopia, Cataracts, glaucoma allergic conjunctivitis and optic atrophy were the commonest eye disorders and causes of visual impairment and blindness in the community. The need for Government to extend eye care service to rural communities as a way of reducing the prevalence of visual impairment and blindness in Nigeria cannot be over emphasized.
Downloads
References
World Health Organization(WHO).Available data on blindness(Update 1987). WHO/PBL 1987; 14:1-23.
Louis P, Abiose A, Ffytche T, Duerkson R, Thulasiraj ,Taylor H, Faal H, Gullapali R, Kocur I, Resnikoff S. Vision 2020 The Right to Sight. A global initiative to eliminate avoidable blindness. Arch Ophthalmol 2004;122: 615-620
World Health Organization(WHO). International statistical classification of diseases, injuries and causes thof death. (10 Revision.) Geneva ,WHO,1993.
Omoni AO. The epidemiology of blindness and visual impairment in a fishing village in Rivers state, Nigeria. The Nig Hlth J 2005; 59(1/2):256-260.
Pedro-Egbe CN, Babatunde S, Ezepue UF. Age and sex distribution of blindness in Ahoada- East local government area, Rivers state, Nigeria. PMJ 2007;1(2):99-103.
Wokoma FS, Nwokocha C, Aliu R, Okuru G. Blindness and visual impairment in Okoboh-a Rural community in the Abua-Odual local government area of Rivers state :findings of a one day Rotary eye camp. PMJ 2008;3(1)77-84.
Patrick-Ferife B, Ashaye AO, Quershi BM. Blindness and low vision in adults in Ozoro-a rural community in Delta state Nigeria. Nig Med J 2005;12(4):387-390.
Abiose A, Muedoch I, Babalola O, et al. Distribution and etiology of blindness and visual impairment in mesoendemic onchocercal communities, Kaduna state. Kaduna collaboration for Research on onchocerciasis.Br J Ophthalmol 1994;98(1):8-13.
Whitworth JA, Gilbert CE, Mabey DM, Morgan D, Foster A. Visual loss in an onchocerciasis endemic community in Sierra Leone . Brit J Ophthalmol 1993; 77(1):30-32.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2015 The Nigerian Health Journal
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The Journal is owned, published and copyrighted by the Nigerian Medical Association, River state Branch. The copyright of papers published are vested in the journal and the publisher. In line with our open access policy and the Creative Commons Attribution License policy authors are allowed to share their work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
This is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author.
The use of general descriptive names, trade names, trademarks, and so forth in this publication, even if not specifically identified, does not imply that these names are not protected by the relevant laws and regulations. While the advice and information in this journal are believed to be true and accurate on the date of its going to press, neither the authors, the editors, nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein.
TNHJ also supports open access archiving of articles published in the journal after three months of publication. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g, in institutional repositories or on their website) within the stated period, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access). All requests for permission for open access archiving outside this period should be sent to the editor via email to editor@tnhjph.com.
