Causes of blindness and career choice among pupils in a blind school; South Western Nigeria

Abstract

Background: The causes of Blindness vary from place to place with about 80% of it been avoidable. Furthermore Blind people face a lot of  challenges in career choice thus limiting their economic potential and full integration into the society. This study aims at identifying the causes of blindness and career choice among pupils in a school for the blind in South –Western Nigeria.
Materials and Methods: This is a descriptive study of causes of blindness and career choice among 38 pupils residing in a school for the blind at Ikere –Ekiti, South Western Nigeria.
Results: Thirty eight pupils comprising of 25 males (65.8%) and 13  females (34.2%) with age range from 6-39 years were seen for the study, The commonest cause of blindness was cataract with 14 cases (36.84%) while congenital glaucoma and infection had an equal proportion of 5 cases each (13.16%). Avoidable causes constituted the greatest proportion of the
causes 27 (71.05%) while unavoidable causes accounted for 11 (28.9%). The law career was the most desired profession by the pupils 11 (33.3%) followed by Teaching 9 (27.3%), other desired profession includes  engineering, journalism and farming.
Conclusion: The greatest proportion of causes of blindness identified in this study is avoidable. There is the need to create public awareness on some of the notable causes particularly cataract and motivate the  community to utilize available eye care services Furthermore there is need for career talk in schools for the blind to enable them choose career where their potential can be fully maximized.

Keywords: Blindness, blind school, causes, career choice