Table 1

Risk of blindness in the Gambia in 1996 compared with that in 1986, in the three main administrative regions. The western region includes Banjul City where the eye hospital is located. The age adjusted risk ratios are Mantel–Haenszel weighted relative risk estimates from analysis of age stratified data

Administrative region	Year		Sample		Blind		Prevalence (%) of blindness		Blindness: age adjusted risk ratio (95% CL)	p Value
Administrative region	Year		Sample		Blind		Crude	Age standardised to 1986 sample	Blindness: age adjusted risk ratio (95% CL)	p Value
Western	1986	3 146	25	0.79	0.79
Western	1996	7 538	21	0.28	0.37	2.2 (1.2–3.8)	0.01
Central	1986	2 007	18	0.90	0.90
Central	1996	1 504	12	0.80	0.84	1.1 (0.5–2.1)	>0.99
Eastern	1986	2 379	10	0.42	0.42
Eastern	1996	4 004	22	0.55	0.69	0.6 (0.3–1.3)	0.28
All regions	1986	7 532	53	0.70	0.70
All regions	1996	13 046	55	0.42	0.55	1.3 (0.9–1.9)	0.19