PREVALENCE AND CAUSES OF LOW VISION IN ENUGU STATE

ABSTRACT Low vision is defined as impairment of visual functioning even after treatment or standard refractive correction, and has a visual acuity of less than 6/18 to light perception in the better eye or a visual field of less than 10° from the point of fixation, but who uses, or is potentially able to use, vision for the planning and / or execution of a task. . This study aimed to investigate the prevalence and causes of low vision among the people of Enugu state. A cross-sectional comparative study was conducted, involving 384 participants 160 males and 224 females, aged 1 to 61 from Enugu State, Nigeria. Case history was done on the subjects and other procedures such as visual acuity with the use of a Log mar chart, external examination, ophthalmoscopy and subjective refraction. The sampling procedure used for this study was the multi-staged sampling procedure, several public and private schools, were randomly selected from the outreach conducted in the local governments of Enugu state. The research instrument used to achieve this was a Log mar chart, Penlight, Retinoscope (Welch-Allyn), Occluder, Trial lens case (Rodenstock), and a Hand-held Ophthalmoscope (Welch-Allyn). Data analysis technique used was a descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation was used, percentages, Chi-square test and Univariate analysis. P value (0.161) tested on age and prevalence of low vision problems among people of enugu state and p value (0.891) tested on gender and prevalence of low vision among people of enugu state, The result revealed that students (2.6%), as the profession with the most contribution to visual impairment within Enugu State and also revealed that 18 (4.67%) of the female participants had low vision more than the 10 (2.60%) of the male participants, the result also revealed cataract (1.3%) as the primary factor responsible for the occurrence of low vision in Enugu State, the result also revealed that 26 (6.8%) of the participants manifested low vision in Enugu state. In conclusion Low vision problems are not equally distributed among people of Enugu State of same age group and gender.