ABSTRACT
To estimate the burden of blindness and visual impairment due to cataract in Egbedore Local Government Area of Osun State, Nigeria. Twenty clusters of 60 individuals who were 50 years or older were selected by systematic random sampling from the entire community. A total of 1,183 persons were examined. The age- and sex-adjusted prevalence of bilateral cataract-related blindness [visual acuity [VA] < 3/60] in people of 50 years and older was 2.0% [95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.6-2.4%]. The Cataract Surgical Coverage [CSC] [persons] was 12.1% and Couching Coverage [persons] was 11.8%. The age- and sex-adjusted prevalence of bilateral operable cataract [VA < 6/60] in people of 50 years and older was 2.7% [95% CI: 2.3-3.1%]. In this last group, the cataract intervention [surgery + couching] coverage was 22.2%. The proportion of patients who could not attain 6/60 vision after surgery were 12.5, 87.5, and 92.9%, respectively, for patients who underwent intraocular lens [IOL] implantation, cataract surgery without IOL implantation and those who underwent couching. "Lack of awareness" [30.4%], "no need for surgery" [17.6%], cost [14.6%], fear [10.2%], "waiting for cataract to mature" [8.8%], AND "surgical services not available" [5.8%] were reasons why individuals with operable cataract did not undergo cataract surgery. Over 600 operable cataracts exist in this region of Nigeria. There is an urgent need for an effective, affordable, and accessible cataract outreach program. Sustained efforts have to be made to increase the number of IOL surgeries, by making IOL surgery available locally at an affordable cost, if not completely free
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to estimate the prevalence of exfoliation syndrome [XFS] and its association with ocular disease in patients attending the eye clinic of the University College Hospital [UCH] in Ibadan, Nigeria. A total of 448 consecutive new patients, aged 30-90 years who presented to the eye clinic of UCH between December 2009 and November 2010 were evaluated. Each patient had a complete ophthalmic examination. Patients with exfoliative material on the anterior lens surface and/or pupillary margin in either or both eyes were considered to have XFS. Means, standard deviation, and 95% confidence intervals were calculated. All the patients examined were from the southern part of Nigeria. Majority [94.2%] were of the Yoruba tribe from southwestern Nigeria, while 5.8% were from southeastern Nigeria. The mean age of the study cohort was 58.5 +/- 13.8, 54.8% were males, 12 [2.7%] had XFS. All patients with XFS were of the Yoruba tribe, with a mean age 65.6 +/- 5.6 years. There was a male predilection [66.7%]. All eyes with XFS had lenticular opacities. XFS was bilateral in eight patients [66.7%] of whom seven patients [87.5%] had glaucoma and lenticular opacities bilaterally. This is the first report of the existence of XFS in Nigeria. Larger studies are necessary in this population to further investigate the disease