ABSTRACT
Introduction: Every year around 5,00,000 individuals losesight as a result of work related eye injuries. The followingstudy was conducted to study the profile of work relatedocular injuries presenting at a tertiary care hospital inGoa.Material and methods: A longitudinal hospital-basedstudy was conducted at the Department of Ophthalmologyat Goa Medical College and Hospital in the one year timeperiod between September 2014- August 2015; whereby 54consecutive patients who presented with work-related eyeinjuries were included in the study. Detailed history and clinicalexamination findings were entered in a pretested proforma.SPSS version 22 and expressed as simple percentages andproportions.Results: the incidence of work-related eye injuries in ourstudy during a one year period was 10.8%, most commonvictims were males in the productive age group of 21-40years. Most patients were industrial workers (50%) followedby agricultural workers (25.92%), construction workers(18.51%), carpenters (3.70%) and fishermen (1.85%). Mostcommon injury that was observed among the study participantswas a conjunctival or corneal foreign body (44.44%) followedby open globe injuries (31.48%) and closed globe injuries(14.81%). 9.25% participants sustained chemical injuries.90.74% participants did not reportedly wear any protectivedevice at the time of injury.Conclusion: work related eye injuries were most commonamong males in the productive age group. Majority of thevictims were not wearing protective eye-wear at the timeof the injury. Hence there is a need to create awarenessabout the need for protective devices at work placealong with proper lighting and training programs for theworkers.
ABSTRACT
Background: Diabetic retinopathy is one of the most common complication of diabetes with a prevalence of 7.3-25%. There have been several studies done in India to assess the knowledge and awareness on diabetes and diabetic retinopathy among patients with diabetes, however very few studies assessed knowledge, awareness and practices amongst patients with diabetic retinopathy.4-7 Besides, no such study was undertaken at Goa Medical College.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 100 consecutive diabetic retinopathy patients attending ophthalmology out-patient department (OPD) at Goa Medical College and Hospital. The patients were administered a pre-tested proforma to assess their level of awareness and attitudes and practices towards diabetes and diabetic retinopathy. Data was entered in Microsoft excel 2010; analysed using the SPSS version 22. Chi-square test was used as test of significance.Results: In our study, 58% were aware of the symptoms of diabetes. 15% were aware of the multiple complications. 35% had knowledge about only one test for detecting diabetes i.e. fasting blood sugar level. 22% had never heard about HbA1c. 49% were not aware that they had diabetic retinopathy. 76% felt it is important to continue medications even if blood sugar levels were normal. 62% were aware of the importance of exercise. 71% took their medications regularly, 72% checked their blood sugar regularly. There was a significant association between educational status and awareness and practices towards diabetes.Conclusions: The diabetic retinopathy patients in our study had a fair knowledge about diabetes and diabetic retinopathy