Jornal de Oftalmologia Clínica e Experimental
Acesso livre
ISSN: 2155-9570
ISSN: 2155-9570
Oluwole Majekodunmi
Purpose: To assess the pattern of ocular diseases among patients attending a geriatric centre in Ibadan, Sub-Sahara Africa.
Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional hospital based study conducted among patients aged 60 years and above. Four hundred and twenty-seven patients with visual acuity worse than 6/12 attending the clinic were selected and informed consent forms were signed by the respondents. An interviewer administered semi-structured questionnaire was used to obtain information on socio-demographic characteristics, as well as their ocular and medical history. Ocular examination and refraction was carried out on each respondent. Data was analysed using the IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (IBM SPSS) software version 20.
Results: A total of 427 patients participated in the study. Mean age was 71.6+7.11 years. The commonest ocular abnormalities include cataract (91.6%), refractive error (90.2%) and glaucoma (61.6%). About one third of patients presented with mild visual impairment (37.9%) and blindness (37.7%) for distance vision, while more than three-quarter (88.5%) of respondents had near vision impairment.
Conclusion: The prevalence of treatable ocular abnormalities was found to be high among the elderly, with cataract being the commonest. This upward trend of age related eye diseases compounded by existing gaps in eye-care services may continue, if urgent actions are not taken. Therefore, it is important for eye care providers and other stakeholders to provide eye health education and accessible eye care services for the elderly to eliminate these avoidable visual impairment and blindness.