WORLD VIEW

Low vision and blindness in adults in Gurage Zone, central Ethiopia

M Melese¹, W Alemayehu¹, S Bayu², T Girma³, T Hailesellasie², R Khandekar⁴, A Worku⁵ and P Courtright⁶

Series editors: W V Good and S Ruit

¹ ORBIS International, Ethiopia
² Ophthalmology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia
³ ALERT Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
⁴ Eye Health Care Program, Ministry of Health, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman
⁵ Community Health Department, Faculty of Medicine, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia
⁶ British Columbia Centre for Epidemiologic and International Ophthalmology, University of British Colombia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, and Kilimanjaro Centre for Community Ophthalmology, Tumaini University/KCMC, Moshi, Tanzania

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Muluken Melese Aseresa, ORBIS International-Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia:
wondu{at}telecom.net.et

Aim: To determine the magnitude and causes of low vision and blindness in the Gurage zone, central Ethiopia.

Methods: A cross sectional study using a multistage cluster sampling technique was used to identify the study subjects. Visual acuity was recorded for all adults 40 years and older. Subjects who had a visual acuity of <6/18 were examined by an ophthalmologist to determine the cause of low vision or blindness.

Results: From the enumerated population, 2693 (90.8%) were examined. The prevalence of blindness (<3/60 better eye presenting vision) was 7.9% (95% CI 6.9 to 8.9) and of low vision (6/24–3/60 better eye presenting vision) was 12.1% (95% CI 10.9 to 13.3). Monocular blindness was recorded in 16.3% of the population. Blindness and low vision increased with age. The odds of low vision and blindness in women were 1.8 times that of the men. The leading causes of blindness were cataract (46.1%), trachoma (22.9%), and glaucoma (7.6%). While the prevalence of vision reducing cataract increased with age, the prevalence of trachoma related vision loss did not increase with age, suggesting that trichiasis related vision loss in this population might not be cumulative.

Conclusion: The magnitude of low vision and blindness is high in this zone and requires urgent intervention, particularly for women. Further investigation of the pattern of vision loss, particularly as a result of trachomatous trichiasis, is warranted.

Keywords: visual acuity; blindness; low vision; trachoma; cataract; refractive errors; glaucoma

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